Leaving Avalice: A Freedom Planet and Sonic The Hedgehog Adventure
by USEChairman
Summary: Avalice has been saved. Lord Brevon has been defeated at the hands of Sash Lilac the Dragon, and his army has been crippled. However, Lilac and her friends are still trapped on his Dreadnought and they need to escape before it crashes once again. Little do they know, that when they escape, they will start a series of events that put Avalice in more danger than they could imagine.
1. Chapter 1

"NOBODY... HURTS... MILLA!"

The furious cry echoed through the walls of the great dreadnought, ringing down several levels into a young Chaser's ears.

 _What the?_ Torque thought, looking up and around in surprise. _What was that? It sounded like Lilac._

He ducked behind a steel crate as another volley of glowing blue lasers erupted from the advancing wall of Shade Troopers. _Shoot!_ He thought as the shots whizzed past him. _These things are relentless!_

With the press of a button, he pulled up the crude, holographic map that had been being generated throughout the ship. _I need to get up there. If Brevon has found the girls, they're going to need my help._ He was terrified of what kind of horrors that monster would do to them, if he didn't simply kill them first. Torque needed to do whatever it took to save them.

When the barrage subsided, Torque slipped a Fire Orb into the slot on the side of his blaster, stepped out from behind the crate, and let loose a fireball that flew towards the advancing mutants. It struck the chest of one of the Troopers in the middle, and then burst outwards in a massive, fiery explosion, driving a hole straight through the Troopers' ranks. With the press of a button on his wrist, Torque activated his jump jets and made a mad dash through the opening he had made.

When he reached the wall at the end of the room, he quickly pressed the button on the panel and, knowing he only had less than a second left, jumped into the glowing green orb that the projector had created.

Torque felt his stomach churn as he shot through the network of connecting transponders. He had never been too fond of teleportation, but unfortunately, it was the easiest and fastest way to traverse the Dreadnought's halls. But that didn't mean he had to like it.

As soon as his ride ended and he had landed safely, he jumped off of the receiver pad, raised his weapon, and gave it a few good blasts. He didn't know if that actually deactivated the machine, or if the Shade Troopers just weren't smart enough to try and follow him through, but it had seemed to work well so far.

Quickly turning away from the sputtering device, he started to run again. However, he was stopped in his tracks as he suddenly hit something very large and very hard. Falling back onto his rear, his eyes shot up to see what he had run into.

Standing on two massive legs was a blue, crab-like creature with thick, chitin plating; sharp, bony spikes; and cold eyes that were locked directly on Torque. Raising one of its legs up high, it prepared to crush the Chaser underneath its flat foot.

As quickly as he could, Torque scurried backwards, dodging the creature's leg as it smashed into the ground. Jumping back to his feet, Torque raised his blaster and fired a flurry of shots. However, the blasts pinged harmlessly off of the mutant's thick armor, leaving little more than a mark.

"Dang it!" He muttered as the creature raised its leg for another attack. He activated his jets and, with a quick burst of speed, dodged the beast's ground-shaking attack.

 _I don't have time for this,_ he thought.

As the mutant raised its foot again to try to crush him, he suddenly dove forward, sliding underneath the creature's spiked body and jumping back to his feet. He started to sprint towards the exit on the opposite side of the large room, in an attempt to escape the beast. However, as the mutant stomped around to face him again, it crouched down low and suddenly sprung up high into the air. Barreling down like a meteor, it crashed into the ground directly in front of Torque's path. The Chaser was barely able to dodge out of the way as the creature again raised its legs and attempted to crush him into the ground.

 _Fine then,_ he thought. _If this is what you want to do._

He raised his blaster again and launched a vicious assault against the blue behemoth. However, the shots did little more than annoy the creature, as they again bounced off of its armor. Uttering a low, guttural growl, the creature began to attack more aggressively, pounding its flat feet into the steel floor in an attempt to turn its prey into a pile of green Chaser-goo. Using his jets for quick bursts of speed, Torque was barely able to avoid the massive crushers, still trying to pepper the beast with scattered blaster shots.

"Come on…" Torque muttered, as he managed to get a few good shots into the creature's face. But the beast simply shook the attack off, continuing its own assault.

Torque growled in frustration. He needed more firepower.

Jumping back to put some distance between him and the mutant, he quickly pulled out a Metal Orb and slipped it into his blaster. Then, as the creature stomped towards him, he suddenly activated his jets, dashed forward, and then dove down, sliding under the creature's stomach again. Rolling around and raising his blaster, he fired a volley of piercing steel shots into the creature's underbelly, then quickly scrambled away as the creature let out a roar of pain.

Swaying back and forth on its two legs, the blue behemoth slowly stumbled around in pain, until it eventually collapsed with a boom onto the ground. Torque watched the motionless body until he saw what he was looking for: A small, black, winged creature with one large eye wiggling its way out of the larger blue creature. After the Shade orbited around the Chaser twice, it fluttered away as though it was unaware of all else around it.

Torque smiled and spun his blaster around in triumph. "That's why you don't mess with a Commander!"

After a moment of celebration, he spun around and, activating his jets again, dashed through the hall towards the room that his map was telling him was the warp core. That was no doubt where Brevon had hooked the Stone up.

The steel door ahead of him opened and he found himself in the warp core. His eyes and his blaster quickly scanned the room for more of Brevon's soldiers, but they instead stopped at a sight that froze his blood.

The room appeared to have housed a fierce battle. Consoles were smashed, the walls and floors were scorched and dented, and a small, white body was sprawled motionless on the floor in the middle of the room.

 _No, no, no, no!_ He dashed over to Milla's body and tenderly turned her over to her back. The poor hound was bruised, broken, and bleeding, but Torque couldn't see any signs of blast marks. Instead, she looked as though she had been hit by a truck.

He closed his eyes and ground his teeth, breathing heavily in an attempt to control his anger. He knew how Brevon did things. He had tormented and tortured her before he had killed her.

The rage boiled over. "Blast it all!" He screamed and hurled his gun against the wall. He should have known this would happen. He had lost his last crew to Brevon's madness, Torque should have known what that sadistic freak would do to this one.

Defeated, he collapsed in a heap onto the ground next to Milla's body, looking at her sadly. _I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve this. I should have been faster. I should have been… I should have… I…_

He put his head in his hands. "Blast it all…" He murmured. He stared at her crippled form, starting to lose hope, until an idea suddenly flashed in his head.

 _Wait..._ He put his hand into his belt and pulled out what he was looking for: A batch of Red Petals that he had gathered before their assault on the Dreadnought. He had very few left, as he had been injured more than he would care to admit during the battles, but he hoped they would be enough to help Milla.

 _Do they even work if she's…_

"No." He said firmly. "They've got to work. They have to."

Quickly, he crushed the petals in the palm of his hand, raised Milla's head and gently opened her mouth, placing the flower petals on her tongue. After tilting her head back and helping her swallow the life-giving petals, he watched Milla's face attentively, looking for any signs of life. At first, nothing seemed to happen, however, after a few moments, he thought he noticed a subtle twitch at the end of her nose.

"Please…" He muttered. He put his ear to her chest. Thinking he heard a faint beat of her heart, he put his hand to her nose. It was weak, but he could definitely feel a slow, slight breath as her lungs began to suck in air once more.

"Oh thank you. Thank you so much." She was still badly hurt, but she was definitely alive again.

Torque didn't know what to do without more of the life petals. He knew the basics of medical aid from his training, but he'd always relied on Pivot to handle any serious injuries. Besides, he doubted anything he could do would help Milla. Even still, he had to do something.

He stood up and took one more look at Milla's broken body, before turning around and making for the console in the middle of the room. The only thing he could do was to complete his mission as soon as possible. He plugged his hacking device into the UCDR slot and got to work.

He only hoped that he could find Lilac and Carol before Brevon did.

* * *

"Lilac!"

Carol the Wildcat pounced in through the door, her feline eyes searching intently for her friend.

In the center of the room, sitting in a great glass cylinder she saw it: The Kingdom Stone, shimmering and sparkling like the morning sun. Under any other circumstances, she would have been itching to swipe a treasure like that.

But her gaze was instead drawn past that, to the wall on the opposite side of the Stone. As she dashed past the imprisoned gem, she saw that a great, dark hole had been drilled straight through the metal wall.

"Lilac? You… are you here?" She cautiously crept towards the hole, hearing what sounded like a soft sobbing coming from within.

"Lilac?" She said again and stepped to the mouth of the crater.

Slowly, Lilac the Dragon Girl came limping out with her head hanging down. Carol looked past her friend to see Lord Brevon's body crushed against the wall. With his armor cracked, his body and face bloody, and his cape torn to shreds, he looked as though he had been in a fight with an army of wolves. And a wrecking ball.

"Wow." Carol said smiling feebly. "You really did a number on him."

Lilac looked up at her and Carol saw tears in her eyes. She decided that her quips weren't the best thing right now.

"Hey, Lilac, it's alright now. We did it, right? We stopped him. We're all okay."

Lilac suddenly slumped to the floor and a frightened Carol rushed down to catch her.

"Carol..." Lilac whispered softly. She was kneeling, her clenched fists shaking as if she were about to fall apart, her eyes staring blankly at the ground.

Carol had no idea what to do. She had never seen her friend, her hero, so broken before. "Lilac, I..."

"What was the point of this?" Lilac asked with a quivering voice. "Why did all this happen to us?"

"I don't… I… I mean we..." Carol felt tears creeping into her eyes. She quickly wiped them away. "Come on Lilac, we have to go. Do you want... I mean, can you stand?"

She put Lilac's arm around her shoulder and slowly lifted her shaking body to her feet. "Come on girl, get up." She said, trying to sound confident. "It's time to go home."

They began to slowly limp away, the desolate dragon being supported by her deeply concerned friend. Step by step, they hobbled away from the body of the man who had caused them so much pain, taking away so much in their lives and plunging their world into darkness. But he wasn't what was on their minds. Carol was only concerned for her heroic lifelong friend who was now slumped limply on her shoulder, while Lilac was almost separated from reality; plagued with guilt, and the thoughts of another friend.

It wasn't until the two were almost out of the large room that the dragon remembered what their mission was.

"Carol, wait." Lilac said weakly, putting a stopping hand on the wildcat's shoulder. "The Stone."

"Oh!" She smiled sheepishly. "Wow, I can't believe I almost forgot."

"You… you can set me down." Lilac tried to stand a bit straighter. "I think I can walk."

Carol took her arms off of Lilac and the two girls made for the Kingdom Stone's glass container. Carol watched the dragon uneasily. She still seemed shaken, and her eyes still had a glassy, detached shine in them, but she was trying hard to stay strong. Carol always loved that about her friend.

"Lilac, um... what exactly happened in there? Last thing I remember is Brevon's big robot thing knocking me out."

"I..." She paused. "I don't know. I mean, I fought with Brevon. I guess I won. I… I don't know."

Carol nodded and bit her lip, deciding not to ask any more of her. They slowly came up to the Kingdom Stone and its glass prison.

"How do we get it out?" Lilac asked.

"Don't worry, I got this." Carol said with a small smile. She walked up and gave the glass a solid kick. The cylindrical case vibrated harshly, but otherwise, nothing happened.

"Uh… hold on." She tried to clawing at the glass in an attempt to weaken it. Nothing happened.

With a slight growl, she stood back a bit, ran forward, pounced up and gave the glass a massive beating: Punching, kicking, and scratching. But again, nothing happened.

"Dang it!" She said, rubbing her sore leg, "That stuff is harder than steel!"

"It's probably bulletproof." Lilac murmured.

"Right. Didn't think about that." She stood up. "Think you can boost through it?"

"Maybe. Let me..." She stepped forward, but suddenly stumbled again before she could finish.

"Lilac!" Carol cried and jumped forward to catch her friend.

Lilac caught herself. The dragon was silent for a second, holding herself with her hands and staring at the cold, metal floor, until Carol heard a quivering voice come from her lips.

"I'm sorry." Her head dropped down, the long, purple tendrils of her hair falling about her face.

"I'm sorry." She said again, tears brimming in her eyes. "I'm so sorry." And she began a series of long, deep sobs.

Carol knew who her friend was really apologizing to. She sat down next to the defeated dragon with a sigh. "How… how 'bout we just rest here... for a bit?"

And so the two friends sat under the glow of the shining gem, on a massive cruiser far away from their home, neither sure what to do next.

Then the ship exploded.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Well, if you haven't noticed, I've rewritten this chapter to be a little better. I feel like I've gotten a bit better since I first started all of this, so I decided to try and polish up the first few chapters to be not quite as rough and well... you know._

 _So anyway, my plan is to rewrite the first five chapters at least, so if you happen to catch this, check back occasionally, and I'll have them up soon. (I kind of wish FanFiction would send out alerts when I update the chapters as well as post new ones. Ah well.)_

 _Anyways, thank you all so much for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you soon._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	2. Chapter 2

Torque was thrown backwards by the sudden, sharp jolt. He landed hard on his back and, after a moment to collect himself, got back to his feet with a grunt.

"Shoot!" He ran back to the monitor. "What happened?"

Typing furiously, with various commands and hundreds of numbers flying across the screen, Torque did his best to find the cause of the sudden shock. One by one, flashing warning signs popped up all across the monitor, filling Torque's eyes with the unfortunate situation.

"No, no, no!" He yelled, smashing his fist into the keyboard. While he was trying to convey the Stone back down to the warp core, he had inadvertently activated one of the ship's emergency protocols. Specifically, one that told the Dreadnought to set course for the nearest planet.

He stood for a while, trying to figure out what his next action was to be, and more importantly, how much time he had until the unpiloted ship began re-entry. "We need to get out of here!"

He spun around and, with a twinge of guilt, saw that Milla's unconscious body had been thrown aside by the violent shock. As he ran to her and gently scooped her up into his arms, he hoped that she hadn't been hurt more than she already was. As he carefully threw her over his back and began to make his way out of the warp core, his heart was heavy with the fear of the trouble that was coming.

The only hope he had now was to find Lilac and Carol and escape the Dreadnought before it crashed again. They would have to find the Stone later.

* * *

"What was that?" Carol jumped to her feet. The shock had thrown the two girls backwards, away from the Stone.

"I have no idea." Lilac stood up as well, wiping her eyes clean. Despite how unexpected and violent the shock was, it at least seemed to have surprised the poor dragon out of her depression.

The two girls looked around the room, as though they would find an answer to the unexpected shock, when a sudden mechanical whirring filled the room. Without any warning, the Kingdom Stone's glass container began to sink into the floor.

"No!" Lilac cried and, with a burst of adrenaline, ran forward to try to stop the gem from escaping. But she couldn't do anything as the Stone disappeared under a metal hatch in the floor.

"What happened? Where'd it go?" Carol asked urgently.

"I don't know." Lilac said. She spun around. "Come on, we need to find Torque and figure out where the Stone went."

Carol nodded, and the two girls began to run out of the battle-scarred room.

All the while, Carol kept a close eye on her friend. Though having a reminder of their mission seemed to have eased the burden on her friend's mind, Carol could tell that the dragon was still struggling. Her eyes were glazed with thought and sadness, her face was still drenched with the tears she had shed, and she seemed to be exerting all of her energy just to force herself to keep moving. Carol wished she could do something to help.

 _I still can't believe she had to do that, being forced to..._ Carol shook her head and sighed sadly.

Soon, the girls came to the colossal chasm that they had climbed to get up to Brevon's quarters. After peering down the endless pit, filled with all sorts of unknown machinery, Lilac motioned to Carol. "Come on. Let's go."

Carol complied, leaping down and landing deftly on an extended platform. Lilac followed suit, and they both had begun the long descent down, jumping off and landing on the large pipes protruding from the wall.

* * *

Torque found himself hiding from enemies much more than he believed he had time for. But with Milla slung back on his shoulder, he couldn't afford to get in a firefight.

Even still, it wasn't very long until he saw a sign of the missing girls. In a tall, narrow hallway leading to a massive archway, Carol's motorcycle had been hastily hidden in a corner, and when Torque stepped through the archway, he understood why.

Above him stretched a massive energy shaft, crisscrossed with pipes, wires, and all sorts of machinery. It was so tall that he doubted that Carol's motorcycle, incredible as it was, could ever have made it up.

 _Then the girls are most likely up there,_ he thought.

He glanced back to the spot that the motorcycle was parked at. He would have to leave Milla near it, since there was no way he would be able to carry her up safely.

He looked down at her unconscious face and felt another sharp pang of guilt.

 _Why did this have to happen to her? She didn't deserve this._ He knew he should have left her behind. He should have left all of them behind and gone in alone. Even if he had failed and died, he would have at least known that Lilac, Carol, and Milla had all been put out of danger.

He laid her down next to the red motorcycle. _Too late now._ He turned around and made for the energy shaft. _I just hope I'm not too late to save the other two._

* * *

Carol jumped down from pipe to pipe, with Lilac following close behind. "You doing okay up there?" Carol called to Lilac.

"I'm..." She grunted as she landed. "alright."

"'Kay good. I think we're almost at the bottom."

"The sooner the better."

Carol was still terrified of the change in her friend's once confident voice. She seemed so empty now, so different than what she was before. _I hope she's gonna get better._

But what if she didn't? What if the rest of her life was filled with the shadow of these terrible events? She didn't want Lilac to become that person. She wanted her to be the same spunky dragon that she had known all these years.

Carol was trying to put it out of her mind when she looked down the chasm. Far down below, her sharp cat eyes saw Torque running into the shaft and looking up.

"Lilac!" Carol whispered. "I see Torque!"

Lilac jumped to the platform Carol was on. "What? Where?"

"Shush!" Carol put her finger to her mouth and gave Lilac a coy grin. "I'm gonna give him a scare!"

"Carol..." Lilac started, but Carol had already jumped on the wall and was silently sliding down to the bottom.

Upon reaching the ground directly behind Torque, who was fiddling with his gear, preparing for the long climb, Carol silently crept behind him on all fours. When just a few feet from him, she stood up and let loose the fiercest roar she could muster.

"Rawr!"

Torque let out a high pitched yelp and jumped forward, fumbling for his blaster. Upon seeing who his attacker was, his face melted into a perfect mix of anger and relief.

"Carol!" He cried. "What's the big idea?"

Carol was rolling on the floor, laughing and clutching her stomach. "You should have seen your face!"

Torque glared at her. "Carol, come on, this is no time to play around. Do you know where Lilac is?" He looked behind him as if expecting Lilac to be sneaking up on him as well.

"She's just up there." Carol pointed upwards. "She'll be down in a sec'."

Within moments, Lilac had jumped down from above and landed gracefully on her feet.

"Hey Torque." She said with a slight smile.

Torque smiled and sighed with relief. "I'm so glad you're both okay. Where were you?"

"We were up there, beating the crap outta that green jerk!" Carol said, striking a heroic pose.

"What? Really? You two fought Brevon?"

"Yep!"

"And you won?"

"Well, it was technically Lilac that finished him off. But I helped a lot! Before he knocked me out." She added quietly.

Torque was stunned. "Well," he said, looking towards Lilac, "Color me impressed. I'm glad you're both okay."

"Yeah..." Lilac said sadly, looking down at the floor. Torque couldn't help but notice something seemed to be wrong with her.

"Lilac? Are you alright?"

"Torque..." Lilac began, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. "Milla's dead."

Torque couldn't help but laugh in shock. "What? No! No, no, no! Milla is fine! I put her just over there." He pointed. "She's unconscious, and hurt pretty badly, but she's definitely still alive."

It was Lilac's turn to be stunned. "Really? You mean she... I didn't..."

"Lilac?" Carol said. "You did actually check to see if she was… you know... breathing?"

Lilac didn't seem to hear her. She was staring into space, lost in her thoughts.

"Listen, we don't have a lot of time." Torque said, looking towards the doorway nervously. "We need to get moving now."

"How come?" Carol asked.

"Is it Milla?" Lilac asked, looking up at Torque.

"Partly, but it's more than that. Come on, we need to move now." The trio set off out of the shaft towards Milla and the motorcycle.

Within minutes, they had found Milla, who was still unconscious, carefully tied her behind Carol on the motorcycle with a cord of discarded wire, and started their escape.

* * *

Soon, the four were speeding through the halls of the dreadnought.

"So what's going on exactly?" Carol asked Torque, who even with his jets was struggling to keep up with the speedy motorcycle and dragon.

"I was in the warp core trying to find the Kingdom Stone." Torque began. "I was hacking a control console trying to convey the Stone back down to me..."

"Ohh!" Said Carol. "That's where the Stone went when we were up there."

"Not exactly." Torque said. "Brevon had set up a few walls in his system to stop us from accessing the data, and I think something I did conflicted with one of those walls, because now the ship thinks it's in an emergency. And one thing the ship is programmed to do in an emergency is set a course for the nearest planet."

"So the ship is crashing into Avalice again?" Lilac asked.

"Isn't that where all'a this started?" Carol said.

"Pretty much." Said Torque. "Except now that Brevon's out of the picture, we're sure not to have the same problems. All we have to do once the dreadnought crashes is find the Kingdom Stone."

Lilac and Torque jumped onto the side of the bike as they sped off a ledge and down a level, with Torque using his jets to help slow the motorcycle's descent.

"Where is the Stone?" Lilac asked once they landed.

"I'm not too sure. My best guess is that it was automatically transferred to a safe room. So we shouldn't have to worry about anything happening to it."

"How much time've we got?" Carol asked.

They turned a corner and were met with a squadron of Shade Troops.

"Get back!" Torque yelled as the robotic suited mutants raised their rifles.

Lilac gathered energy and unleashed her dragon boost through the Troopers, blasting more than half of them into pieces and knocking the rest to the floor. The remaining few were finished by Torque's blaster.

"Sorry, you were saying something?" Torque said as they dashed off again.

"How much time do we have until the ship crashes?" Lilac said, repeating Carol's question.

"Well, we have plenty of time before the ship actually crashes. What we need to worry about is getting off before the ship enters the planet's atmosphere."

"Why is that a problem?" Carol asked.

"Because the ship is entering at an angle where re-entry will cause complete catastrophic combustion for anything that doesn't have a heat shield strong enough to resist the temperatures, not to mention that the gravitational pull would make it difficult to safely launch a ship."

Lilac and Carol looked at one another questioningly. "Wait, why is it so hot up there?" Lilac asked.

"It's 'cause you're closer to the Sun. Duh." Carol responded, rolling her eyes.

"Oh right." Torque said chuckling. "Your people don't have space travel yet. Let's just say it gets really hot when you're entering a planet, and the escape pods wouldn't be able to handle it unless you have a competent pilot."

"Right. Aaand how many planes have you crashed in the past few days?" Carol said.

"More than both of you." He said very matter-of-factly. "That means I'm the one with the most experience. And most of those ships were honestly not my fault."

"Uh huh." Carol said with an exaggerated nod. "That makes me feel a whole lot better."

"Carol." Lilac said. "Have a bit more faith in him. He'll get us through this."

Torque smiled at her genuine comment. It felt very good to have her say something like that about him.

He tried to shake it off, putting his mind back to the task at hand. "Come on, there should be a group of pods just up..."

Then the ship exploded again.

* * *

Lilac and Torque were thrown off of their feet by the massive jolt and rolled forward. Carol and Milla, still tied to each other, flew off of the bike and spun through the air. Carol grabbed hold of Milla trying to shield her from the landing, and the two smashed into the ground and rolled up next to Torque and Lilac.

"Owww." Carol moaned.

Lilac stood shakily to her feet. "What happened?"

The ship began to vibrate violently, so much so that it was almost impossible for them to keep their balance.

"No!" Torque said, bracing himself against the wall. "We had more time than this. I know we had more time."

"What is it? What's happening?" Lilac urgently asked, while trying to help Carol keep Milla's body steady.

"We've begun re-entry. We need to get to the pods now!"

As best as they could, the three friends tried to fight the growing vibrations. The roar of the rattling walls was mind-numbing to Carol, and she wished she had time to plug her ears.

"Let me hold Milla!" Lilac called to Carol, who was struggling to straighten her motorcycle with Milla still tied to her. "She's not too heavy!"

Lilac pulled the cord off of Milla and secured her as best she could in her arms.

"Let's go!" Torque yelled and they dashed off again.

Within a minute, they had found a long hallway lined with square hatches, each leading to an escape pod.

"Hurry!" Torque yelled. "Get in!"

He pressed a button next to one of the hatches and it opened up to a tiny ship with a pilot seat, and four small passenger seats. Lilac ran in with Milla in her arms, and set the young hound tenderly in one of the seats.

"Fasten her!" Torque yelled. "The belts, right there!"

Lilac grabbed the safety restraints and buckled Milla securely to the seat. Then she sat down and buckled herself in while Carol was pulling the motorcycle in the ship.

"Try to secure the bike!" Torque called to Carol as he sat himself in the pilot's seat.

"How?" She called back.

"Figure something out!" He yelled. "We can't have it running loose while we land!"

After looking around frantically, Carol decided to try to prop the bike up in the seat next to her own and buckle it in with the safety restraint. "Good 'nuff." She said to herself, and sat down in the seat next to it.

"Everyone ready?" Torque called, and began flipping switches and pushing buttons.

"Ready!" Lilac and Carol called in unison.

The hatch at the back of the ship closed and the hatch leading outside of the dreadnought in front of them opened.

"Three!" Torque called.

Carol couldn't tell if she was scared speechless, or if she was breathless with anticipation. Either way, she was leaving claw marks in the sides of the seat.

"Two!"

Lilac looked sidelong at Milla and put an arm across her chest, to help steady her unconscious body for the upcoming ride.

"One!"

 _Here goes nothing._ Torque activated the launch sequence and the pod was jettisoned like a bullet from the dreadnought into the skies of the planet below.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _Well, that's Chapter 2 rewrite done. I'm sorry it took so long but... well I don't have an excuse. I've just decided I'm terrible at managing my time. I need to work on that._

 _Anyway, as always, thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Your's Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	3. Chapter 3

Down below, on the planet's surface, a lone figure was sitting with his back to the trunk of a tree, looking up at the darkening sky. He had noticed a few meteors in the sky a little while ago, and he sat on a hill hoping to see more of the shower.

His day had been extremely boring. He had aimlessly wandered the valleys and hills, hoping to find some hint of another adventure. But he had found nothing. The most exciting thing that had happened today was the meteor shower flashing in the sky above him.

"Eh." He said, rubbing his nose. "I'll find something to do."

And so he sat, looking up at the yellow streaks of light as they shot across the sky, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

* * *

Lilac was no stranger to going fast. As a dragon-blood, she could reach speeds on foot that were mind boggling to some. But the sheer amount of speed that she experienced when Torque launched that escape pod totally stunned her.

As soon as it launched, she felt the blood rush out of her head and her vision blur out, something that hadn't happened to her since she was a child. She tried desperately to avoid passing out, but her thoughts slowly became more and more blurred, until they went dark completely.

Carol didn't last much longer. Only seconds after Lilac lost consciousness, she felt her own mind slipping into darkness as well, until the only person awake in the ship was Torque, thanks to his training as a Chaser.

Torque pulled furiously on the control stick, trying to slow the descent of the pod. But he was fighting both momentum and gravity, so the ship refused to respond. The pod became enveloped in a yellow fireball as they sailed through the planet's atmosphere.

"Come on! Come on!" He yelled. He knew they were coming in too deep. They were going to burn into nothingness before they even hit the ground.

Torque had no idea what to do. He desperately tried to find something, anything, that could save them. But he saw nothing.

The small pod barreled faster and faster towards the planet.

Torque was furiously pushing every button and flipping every switch, all while continually pulling back on the control stick. He was attempting every trick he'd ever learned as a Chaser, but to little avail.

"Blast it!" He yelled. They had passed the cloud line. The ground was getting dangerously close.

 _We're not going to make it._

His hands fell limply off of the control stick as he watched the planet coming closer and closer. Hopelessly, he glanced back at the three unconscious girls with a heavy heart. They were going to die. He had killed them. He had failed. He had...

"No." Torque's face hardened. Right then and there, he knew what was going to happen. He had lost his last crew, his last family, and it had almost broken him. He was going to do whatever it took not to lose this one.

Grasping both hands on the control stick, he began to pull back on it once again.

"Come on!" He said under his breath.

The ship refused to respond. He pulled harder.

"Come on!" He yelled. He pushed a group of big red buttons.

The ship refused to respond. He pulled harder.

"COME ON!" He screamed and pulled with all his might.

The ship crashed into the ground with a deafening explosion.

Grass and earth flew up around the pod as it bounced along the ground. Small trees and bushes were flattened, and tiny woodland creatures scrambled to get out of the way of the crashing ship.

The pod hit an exposed rock and flipped over on its side, breaking off one of its short wings in the process. It continued to slide along the dirt and the grass, leaving a long, brown scar in the earth, until it finally came to rest on the side of a tiny hill, topped with a single tree.

All was deathly quiet inside and around the pod. Until a small voice broke the silence.

"That was totally awesome." Carol said.

* * *

Torque opened his eyes. _I'm alive._ "We're alive!" He started to laugh. "Yes!" He threw his hands in the air, but let out a cry of pain.

"Torque?" Lilac unbuckled herself from the seat and carefully slid over to the Chaser. "Are you okay?"

Torque looked over at her with an expression of pure joy. "I think I broke my arm!" He said laughing.

Lilac couldn't help but join his laughing, just at how ridiculously happy he looked. "You did it Commander. You saved us." She helped him unbuckle his restraints and, avoiding touching his injured arm, carried him down from his seat.

"Excuse me! Could use a bit of help here!" Lilac and Torque looked up to see Carol hanging down from above by her safety restraints.

Lilac smiled. "Give me a minute Carol. I need to get Torque out."

"Sure. Whatever. I'll just stay here. Yippie."

Lilac and Torque came to the back hatch, and Lilac kicked it open, revealing a massive stretch of green grasslands, topped with small hills and scattered trees.

Lilac helped Torque down onto the grass next to the wrecked pod, then turned around to get Carol and Milla.

Within a minute, Lilac, Carol, and Torque were sitting in a circle on the cool grass under the setting sun, while Milla lay just a few feet away on a soft patch of dirt.

"First things first." Lilac said. "Where are we? I don't recognize any of this place."

"I'm not sure." Torque said. They had convinced Carol to give up her scarf to make a makeshift sling for his arm. "But I think I'll be able to figure out soon enough. I just need to take a few scans."

"How close do you think we are to any of the kingdoms?"

"To be perfectly honest, I doubt we're a short walk away. We could be on the other side of Avalice for all I know."

"Great. Please tell me we're not gonna be walking all the way there." Carol said.

Torque shook his head. "If it's that far away, then we're going to need some help. I'm sure that we'll be able to find some civilization somewhere close by. We'll be able to get some transportation there, as well as some help for Milla."

Lilac glanced back at the unconscious hound with concern on her face. "Do you think she's going to be alright?"

Torque nodded. "That girl is one tough cookie. If she's made it through all of this, I'm sure she'll be able to handle a bit more. Even still, we shouldn't hang around too long. I think..."

Carol, who had been glancing in Milla's direction as Torque was speaking, suddenly jumped up and interrupted. "She's waking up!"

Lilac jumped to her feet and dashed to the stirring Milla, with Torque and Carol right behind.

"Milla?" Lilac said, kneeling down next to her.

Milla was shaking and whimpering in pain. Eventually, her soft, green eyes opened to see Lilac looking down at her.

"Lilac..." She said weakly. "I'm sorry."

Tears began streaming down her face as pained, guilty sobs crept from her throat.

"Milla, no. It's alright. You weren't yourself." She gently rested her hand on Milla's shoulder, trying to comfort her. "Milla, you're okay. You didn't hurt anyone."

Torque could tell Lilac was fighting tears as well. "Lilac?" He said softly. "What happened to her?"

Lilac put her head down, refusing to look at Torque.

"Let's not talk about that right now." Carol said, pulling Torque away from Lilac and Milla, who were now both crying. "Give them a bit of space."

"Carol." Torque said. "Please tell me what happened."

Carol looked at him with a straight face, but Torque could see both sadness and terror in her eyes. "Not right now. In a bit." She turned away from him and quickly jogged away to her motorcycle.

Torque sighed. _What happened up there?_

* * *

Some time later, after the sun disappeared behind the distant mountains, and night set it's darkness throughout the land, a small campfire was casting its heat and light on the wreck.

Carol had fallen asleep long before the sun had set completely. Her head lay next to the wheel of her bike, a thin stream of drool sliding down her cheek.

Before he had set off to take some scans of the area, Torque had found a small medical kit in the wrecked pod, and he had used it to patch Milla up as best as he could, though there wasn't anything in it to treat his own arm. She was now sleeping peacefully next to the fire, with Lilac sitting up next to her.

Despite her itching eyes, Lilac couldn't sleep. She was being haunted by the things Milla had said to her.

 _She apologized._ She thought sadly, looking down at her sleeping face. _Like she did something wrong._

Lilac just couldn't take that. Milla didn't do anything wrong. She was a victim. It was Lilac that had hurt her.

Lilac closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears.

 _I need to stop blaming myself. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't any of our faults. I wish I could have done more, but there was nothing we could have done._

The thought didn't help. No matter how hard her mind tried to logic her out of feeling, her heart seemed determined to remind her of what had happened. Of what she had done to her friend.

 _How does Carol do it?_ She wondered. _She went through the same stuff I did. But she stays so cool, so aloof. Like none of it bothers her._

Lilac put her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. "I've got to think about something else." She muttered.

"What was that?" Lilac turned around to see Torque walking up behind her, his arm still slung in Carol's scarf.

"Nothing." She said. "I'm just kinda having trouble falling asleep."

Torque tried to read deeper beneath the words. "I've finished scanning the immediate area." He said, sitting down on one side of the fire. "I'm pretty sure I'll be able to figure out where we are soon."

Lilac nodded, but didn't say a word. Instead, she silently stared at the soft, glowing embers as they were thrown up into the sky.

Torque sighed and thought for a moment, before speaking up. "Lilac, would you like to talk?"

Lilac didn't respond, but continued staring at the fire.

Torque looked down, trying to figure out what would be best to do. After a minute he shook his head and let out a sigh of frustration. "I don't know how to help you Lilac!" He said, standing up. "I don't even know what's wrong!"

Lilac looked up at him in surprise. His words sounded unusually harsh. "Torque, I… I don't need help."

Torque shook his head. "I don't believe you. I don't know what happened up there, but you weren't this… this broken even after what Brevon did to you in the thermal base."

Lilac shuddered at the memory.

"So tell me right now; what happened? What did he do to Milla?"

"He... he..." Lilac stuttered, trying to get the words out. "I... I fought..."

She put her head in her hands. "I'm sorry." She whimpered, on the verge of crying.

Torque stared at her, surprised at himself that he had pushed her so far. "No, I'm sorry."

After a moment, he sat down next to her. "I don't know what I'm doing. All of this: The fighting, the battles. I'm completely in over my head."

He paused. "But that doesn't change the fact that I have a responsibility. And not just as a Chaser and all of that, but I have one towards you too, towards all three of you. I… I feel like I need to..."

"Torque, what do you mean?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know. I guess what I'm really doing is just trying to be a leader, like my captain was. But I just can't seem to do a very good job."

He put his fist to his chin. "My captain was a giant among men. No matter what the problem, no matter what the situation, no matter how significant or trivial, he always seemed to have a solution. He was the glue that kept our crew together. He kept us feeling like a family."

"You... you really admired your captain, didn't you?" Lilac asked.

Torque shook his head. "I wanted to be like he was. I still do. But I just can't. I'm nowhere near as good a man as he was. He knew people, he knew how they worked, and what they needed. I don't even know what _I_ need half of the time."

Torque stood, putting his hand to his hip. "I guess I'm just kinda worthless as a leader, huh?"

"Torque, no." Lilac stood as well, putting a comforting hand on Torque's shoulder. "You're awesome, especially as a leader. You've gotten us through more trouble in the past few days than I've had in a lifetime. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have even known what Brevon was doing, and we definitely wouldn't have been able to stop him. You're the most important part of our team."

Torque sighed and nodded. "Thank you, I guess. But it's like I said: A leader needs to know how to solve the little problems inside his crew, as well as the big ones outside of it. So Lilac, please, let me help you."

Lilac stared at his pleading face, weighing what she should do. Eventually, she nodded. "Okay Torque, I'll tell you."

The two sat down and Lilac began to recount everything that happened to her and Carol when Torque was separated from them. She described the chases, the fighting, the airlocks, the guns and the cannons. She described how Brevon drained the oxygen from their sector and how Carol and her had almost suffocated, had it not been for Milla's help. Torque's breath caught when she described their final fight with Serpentine.

"What?" Lilac asked.

"Nothing. It's just, I can't believe he did that to his own General."

Lilac sniffed. "I… I don't know why, but I almost feel guilty for what we did to him. I know he was just a gun-crazed maniac, but he just seemed so helpless. Before he transformed."

"Frankly, you put him out of his misery. What Brevon did to him, what he used to make him into that thing. It's not pretty stuff."

Lilac suddenly put her head in her hands and suppressed a sob. Torque looked at her, trying to figure out what he had said to bring this about, when the cold truth suddenly hit him.

"Oh no." He closed his eyes in dark understanding. "You mean he…"

Lilac nodded in her hands.

"Where..." He paused. "When did you fight her?"

"In the warp core. We were trying to shut the ship down with those things you gave us, when Brevon..."

She paused for a second, drawing in breath. "When Brevon came in, with his knife to her throat." She covered her eyes with her hands.

"It's alright." Torque said. "Just keep going."

"I… I didn't want him to hurt her, so I gave him the device. He destroyed it, then threw Milla on the floor and ran away. Carol and I ran to see if she was alright but..."

She stopped for a moment and drew in another deep breath before continuing. "Her eyes were glowing red, like a monster. Then her entire body began to glow. She started to change right in front of us until..."

Lilac looked away, trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

"So, you and Carol fought her?" Torque asked.

Lilac nodded. "It wasn't Milla anymore. It attacked us, so we had to fight it."

Lilac broke down. "I thought I had killed her. I was so angry. I can't... I don't..."

"It's okay." Torque said. "It's okay." He put his arm around her shoulder, trying to comfort her with a tender gesture.

He let her cry for a while, until she could let it out completely. When she calmed down, he continued talking. "You know, I wish I could say that you're the only person this has happened to."

He sighed. "But Brevon has done this far too many times, to far too many people. He even once did it to a member of my own crew."

"You..." She sniffed. "You mean, he transformed him?"

Torque shook his head. "Worse. He did it to his family. Turned them into a pack of mindless beasts. We were forced to…"

He sighed. "Axis was never the same person after that."

Lilac looked away. "I hate him."

"What?"

"I hate Brevon."

"Oh." Torque nodded. "A lot of people do. He's caused so much suffering and pain to so many people and planets."

He was silent for a minute. "But you know what?" He said at last.

She looked at him, to see a smile on his face. "It's all over. Thanks to you, no one has to suffer anymore. You've saved a lot of lives, Lilac."

Lilac looked down at her feet. "Yeah, I guess."

The two sat quietly for a while. Soon, Torque stood up. "Come on. You need to get some sleep. We may have a lot to do tomorrow."

"What about you?"

"I'm going to at least figure out where we are before I go to bed."

Lilac smiled. "And you say you're not a good leader."

Torque chuckled. "Thanks Lilac. Good night."

Lilac nodded and lay on the ground. "Good night, Commander." She closed her eyes.

Torque smiled, then looked up at the starry sky. _I'm going to miss this place._ He thought. _Ah well. I've still got a bit more time with them._

He sat down, pulled up the scans he had made of the landscape, and began processing them to pinpoint their current location.

After more than twenty minutes of searching, his computer finally found where they were, and Torque found himself completely stunned.

 _We're going to have more time than I thought._

He looked over at the three sleeping girls, by the light of the dying fire. _How in the world am I going to tell them?_

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _That's Chapter 3 done. A little bit sooner than I expected, but then again, I guess I didn't change all that much. Ah well, good enough._

 _Anyway, thank you all for viewing and reviewing and I'll see you soon._

 _Your's Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	4. Chapter 4

Carol felt herself being shaken awake soon after the sun had risen.

"Come on girl, get up. You've slept enough today."

Carol moaned and turned over. "Five more minutes..." She said sleepily.

Lilac shook her head. "No way, Torque says he needs to talk to us. Come on, even Milla is awake."

Carol slowly sat up with her eyes half closed and yawned. "Well, she's slept longer than I have."

"Carol." Lilac said, crossing her arms. "You've been out for over thirteen hours."

"Well, I haven't gotten much sleep the past few days." Carol groggily rolled over and stretched her body on all fours.

Lilac rolled her eyes. "Have you ever even seen a sunset or a sunrise?"

"I have! Just never on the same day."

Lilac laughed. "Come on, Torque needs to see us."

The two ran off to the wrecked ship, where Milla and Torque sat. Carol couldn't help but be glad that Lilac seemed to be feeling better. Sleep fixes everything. She thought happily.

They came up to Milla and Torque. Milla, despite still being battered and bandaged, seemed to be very cheerful.

"Good morning, Carol!" She said with a big smile.

"Morning." Carol responded. "You seem better."

"I am! Torque's the best doctor ever!"

Torque smiled. "Nah. You honestly weren't hurt that bad. Anyone could have done what I did."

"As if!" Lilac said smiling. "No one here could have..."

"Anyway!" Carol said loudly. She knew that this would go on for a while if she didn't do anything. "You've got news?"

Torque nodded. "And it's not good news."

"Are we farther from the kingdoms than you thought?" Lilac asked.

"I don't mind." Milla said. "We can walk."

Lilac smiled, but Torque sighed and shook his head. "It's not that simple."

Carol sighed. "I hate it when people say that."

"Okay," Torque stood and began. "You remember how the dreadnought was crashing into the planet?"

They all nodded.

"And you remember how we were in the atmosphere when we launched the pod?"

They nodded again.

"Okay. Well... it's because of that we're... well I... I didn't think to... well..."

"Torque?" Lilac asked. "What is it?"

Torque remained silent, nervously pacing back and forth. "Oh, blast it!" He said at last. "We're on the wrong planet!"

The three girls stared at him silently, trying to interpret what it was he said.

Eventually, Lilac spoke up. "We're... not on Avalice?"

"Wow." Carol said in awe. "We're on an alien planet!" She looked about as if she expected to see aliens on the horizon and UFOs flying around in the distant sky.

"How... how did this happen?" Lilac asked.

Torque sighed. "I have no idea. I guess when the dreadnought activated its emergency protocol, this planet was the closest."

Milla sniffed. "Are we ever going to make it back home?" Tears filled her eyes.

"Oh Milla." Lilac got up and put her hands tenderly on Milla's shoulders. "It's alright. Torque's gonna get us back home."

Carol smirked. "No pressure."

Torque forced a smile. "Thanks a lot."

"I'm okay." Milla said, and wiped her tears away. She wanted desperately to look brave in front of the others.

"Are there any people on this planet?" Lilac asked. "Anyone that could help us?"

Torque shrugged his shoulders. "I really don't know much about this place. They may have space travel, but it's very primitive if it's not in the Coalition's databases."

"So what can we do?"

"Well, I can think of two options. First, we can find the crashed dreadnought and see if there's a ship in there we can use. Or, if that doesn't work, we can try to find someone that can help us fix the pod."

"Why can't you just fix it?" Carol asked.

Torque shook his head. "I don't have the parts or the skill. I'm not terrible when it comes to mechanics, but I can't rebuild a spaceship from scratch."

"So it sounds like we're going to need help either way." Lilac said.

Torque nodded. "I'm afraid that's true. I'm just worried we're not going to be able to find any."

Carol sighed. "We're not gonna know unless we start looking."

"Be patient Carol." Said Lilac. "We need to plan out what we're doing first."

Carol groaned and laid back on the grass. "Planning is boring."

Lilac rolled her eyes, and Milla giggled.

"So," Torque continued, "the best hope we have is to find civilization and hope that they can help us fix the ship."

"What about the Kingdom Stone?" Lilac asked. "Are we going to be finding it?"

Torque nodded. "Absolutely. Not only are we going to have to return it to the three kingdoms, but we should also be able to use it's energy to help power the ship. The only problem is that the crashed dreadnought is most likely going to be extremely dangerous."

"How come?" Carol asked.

Torque shrugged. "There could be dozens of reasons. Fuel leaks, unstable structures, malfunctioning security. There's almost certainly some soldiers and Shade Mutants left. Plus, we don't even know where the Stone is."

"So what's the plan?" Lilac asked.

"Well, we have two things to do: We need to find someone that can help us fix the pod, and we need to search the dreadnought for the Stone. My plan is that while you search around for a sign of someone that could help us, I'm going to go and find the wreck." He pointed to the massive plume of smoke in the distance, marking the site of the dreadnought's crash.

"You said it would be dangerous." Lilac said. "If it is, then I want us going in together."

Torque shook his head. "I won't be going inside. I'm only going to scan it from afar, looking for radiation or anything like that. If I can, I'll try to get close and access a control station to find the Stone, but I'm only looking to see when we can search the ship later."

Lilac looked at him sternly. "Torque, I want you to promise that you are not going to go into that ship alone."

Torque was surprised. "Lilac, I... What do you mean?"

"You've got a bad habit of putting yourself in danger thinking it's going to put us out of it. I want you to promise that you're not going to go into the dreadnought without us."

Torque nodded. "I know. I promise I won't."

Lilac smiled. "Good."

"What about me?" Milla asked. "I want to help!"

Lilac shook her head. "Sorry Milla. I don't want you to get hurt anymore out there. You can stay here with Carol."

"Wait, what?" Carol said, sitting up quickly.

"That's for the best." Torque said, not paying attention to Carol. "In fact, Lilac, you should also be looking for someone that could give Milla some better aid."

"Okay, just hold on a minute!" Carol said, crossing her arms. "I'm not going with Lilac?"

Torque shook his head. "No, you're going to be staying here by the ship."

"Why?"

"Someone needs to take care of Milla." Lilac said. "I'm the fastest, and I'm pretty sure Torque is the only one that knows anything about radiation."

"Oh come on!" Carol exclaimed. "I can't stay here! We're on another planet for crying out loud! I wanna explore!"

"Carol, please." Lilac said. "If something happens to me and Torque, you need to be the one to take responsibility."

Carol groaned, but relented. "Fine, whatever. I'll just stay here and look at the grass with Milla."

"Yay!" Milla said happily.

"Good." Torque said. "So we all know what we're doing?"

Lilac nodded.

"Okay then. Let's try to get back before dark. We don't know who or what's out here exactly."

"Got it." Lilac said.

* * *

Minutes later, Lilac and Torque had packed the small reserves of food that they had found in the pod, and were prepared to set out on their tasks.

"Be back before dark!" Torque called out, as he set out towards the smoking pillar.

"I know!" Lilac called back to him, and waved goodbye.

Just before she left, she pulled Carol aside. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"What?" Carol asked defensively.

"We're all in a lot of trouble, and you're afraid of being bored for a bit?"

"Oh come on!" Carol said, crossing her arms. "You're the one expecting me to sit around with her all day." She pointed to Milla, who was humming to herself by the ship.

"What do you have against Milla?" Lilac asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing. I just don't like talking with her, or listening to her talk."

"Carol." Lilac said. "I don't know if you know this, but Milla really likes you. She thinks you're really cool..."

"Am I not?" Carol said, with a sly grin.

"And," Lilac said, ignoring her sarcasm, "It would mean a lot to her if you would pay her a bit of attention."

"Why can't you just stay with her? She likes you too."

Lilac shook her head. "It's like I said, I'm the fastest, so I'd be able to find some help faster. That, and I'm the one with the 'people skills'."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Carol asked, putting her hands on her hips.

Lilac smiled. "It's like that one job a few years back, when we were trying to scam the banker. If I hadn't spoken up, we probably would have been thrown in jail."

Carol rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Whatever."

"Okay good. And don't worry, it's only going to be for one day."

"How do you know you're even gonna find someone?"

Lilac shrugged. "I don't know. I just have a good feeling about this place. Even though it's an alien planet, doesn't it honestly feel a lot like home?"

Carol crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, which made Lilac laugh. "Sorry, that sounds totally crazy. But I mean it. I feel like I'm gonna find someone out here."

Carol gave an exaggerated nod. "Whatever you say Miss Heropants."

Lilac smiled. "I'll be back soon. Please take care of Milla."

"Of course. Cross my heart, or whatever."

"Thanks. See you soon." Lilac gave a wave and then dashed away, fading off into the distance as quick as lightning

Carol sighed, then turned around and walked over to where Milla was sitting.

"So Carol..." Milla said with a smile. "What do you want to do?"

Carol sat down next to her bike and shrugged. "I don't know."

Milla looked around. "Um... we could play Truth or Dare."

"What? Really?" Carol asked. "Isn't that a bit, you know, clichéd?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know, in all of the movies, you always see a bunch of girls playing it."

"Oh, um." Milla put her hands behind her back. "It's just, I've never played it with anyone before. It sounds like a lot of fun though!"

Carol shrugged and sighed, deciding to humor her. "Sure, why not?"

"Great!" Milla said. "Ok, I'll start! Truth or Dare?"

 _This is gonna be a long day._ Carol thought.

* * *

Lilac smiled as she felt the wind rush past her face, blowing her hair back and stinging her eyes. It had been a long time since she could run just for running's sake.

 _Well, not just for running's sake,_ she reminded herself. _I've still got a job to do._

And yet, she couldn't help but notice the beauty of the world around her. The green grasslands stretched out as far as she could see in some directions, and in others she saw ranges of mountains in all shapes and sizes. _Those would be great for running on, s_ he thought.

Right now however, she was enjoying the simple flat land that she was on. It was fun to run up and down hills and around loops, no doubt. But every so often, she enjoyed finding a place where she could run in a straight, simple line. These grasslands were perfect for that.

 _It really does feel a lot like home,_ she thought. _I could imagine myself turning around and just running straight back to my treehouse. It's almost hard to believe I'm on another planet._

She shook her head. _Focus Lilac,_ she told herself. _I need to find some help as soon as possible._

Hours passed, and Lilac had yet to find any sign of a civilization, or anything intelligent. She had been running for almost the whole time, stopping only when she needed a quick rest, or when she thought she saw something in the distance.

But right now, she was breathing heavily and her chest had begun to hurt. She needed a long rest. _I guess even Dragons need a break from running every now and then,_ she thought.

She slowly slid to a stop, just a little ways away from a hill, and began a slow walk towards it. This hill was much larger compared to the stubby hills that the grassland was dotted by, and it was capped with a single, large tree.

She began a slow climb up the hill, making for the tree at the top. Upon reaching it, she sat down with her back to the trunk and pulled out the packaged rations that Torque had procured from the pod.

She wrinkled her nose upon opening the brown cracker. She had tried some of them that morning, and had found them to be incredibly tasteless and dry. She really wasn't looking forward to a second.

She bit into the cracker and struggled to swallow. This one almost seemed to be more bland than the one she had eaten that morning.

 _Wouldn't mind having a Pangu Fruit right now, s_ he thought longingly.

She took a second bite, but before realizing it, she swallowed wrong and the piece got stuck in her throat. She began to cough and choke, standing up with her fist to her mouth, trying to get the piece of dry cracker out.

Just then, she heard a voice speak. "You okay there?"

She jumped around in surprise, almost forgetting the lump she had stuck in her throat. "Who..."

She started coughing again, and continued this until the cracker came up, and she could swallow properly. "Who's there?" She asked.

There was silence. She looked around the hill, but could see no one. The voice suddenly spoke again.

"You're new around here, aren't you?" It was coming from above. Lilac looked up into the tree and sitting high up in the leaves, she saw a... something. She couldn't tell what species it was.

 _Well, he's an alien, s_ he thought. _Of course I can't tell what he is._

"Um, yeah." She responded. "In fact, I was looking for some help."

"Oh really?" The thing was laying back on a branch with his hands behind his head, his long nose pointed up at the sky, not looking at Lilac. "Well, good luck with that."

"Wait!" She said. "Could you help me?"

He shrugged, still not looking at her. "Maybe. Depends on what you need."

Lilac frowned. She wasn't sure she liked this alien. "Well, me and my friends have had a bit of an accident out that way." She pointed. "We've crashed and we need some help fixing our ship."

He sighed, then quick as lightning, he rolled over and jumped onto the ground right in front of Lilac.

"What's your name?" He asked, looking at her from head to toe.

"Lilac." She responded, observing him the same way.

He nodded. "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog."


	5. Chapter 5

Carol was going insane.

Milla had been trying to play Truth or Dare with her for what seemed like an eternity, and they hadn't done anything even remotely fun yet.

It wasn't entirely her fault. Milla just didn't seem to have any interesting secrets, and since she was hurt, Carol couldn't dare her to do anything fun.

It didn't help that when Milla tried to ask Carol a question, it usually was no more complex than asking what Carol's favorite food was.

 _I can't take anymore._ Carol thought. _I gotta do something._

"Hey Milla," She said, standing up. "I've got an idea!"

"What?" Milla said.

"Well, you haven't dared me to do anything yet. How 'bout if you dare me..." Carol thought for a minute. "Oh! To go look for a flower!"

"But..." Milla said timidly, "Don't you have to stay here with me?"

Carol shrugged. "Hey, it's just part of the game. And besides, I won't be going too far. I bet I'd be back before Lilac and Torque got back."

"Okay." Milla said with a smile. "I guess that sounds fun! Okay, um, I dare you to go find a flower, and bring it back here."

Carol grinned. "Great! I'll be back before you know it!"

Carol couldn't help laughing as she walked to her motorcycle. _Carol, you sly genius._ She thought with a smile.

She jumped onto the back of the bike and revved it up.

"Goodbye Carol!" Milla called.

"See ya soon!" Carol gave Milla a two-fingered salute, and sped off. She was going to see as much as possible before she had to head back.

* * *

"Hedgehog?" Lilac asked. "You sure about that?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic asked.

"Well, you don't exactly look like a hedgehog."

He crossed his arms. "What else is a hedgehog supposed to look like?"

"Well, they... I mean..." Lilac shrugged. "I don't know. You just don't really look like one."

"Well what are you then?"

"I'm a dragon."

"Seriously?" Sonic started to laugh. "A dragon?"

Lilac crossed her arms and frowned. "Yeah. Of course I'm a dragon."

Sonic started to laugh so hard that he had to lean against the tree for support.

"What is it?" Lilac asked, feeling herself blush.

"A dragon?" Sonic laughed. "As if!"

"Well, what else is a dragon supposed to look like?" Lilac asked angrily.

"Big?" Sonic said. "Wings? Breathes fire?"

Lilac shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Sonic laughed. "You know what? You want to say you're a dragon? Then you can say you're a dragon."

"I don't..." Lilac shook her head and growled under her breath. "Are you going to help me or not?"

Sonic shrugged, leaning back against the tree cooly. "You say your ship crashed?"

Lilac nodded. "Yeah. You wouldn't happen to know how to fix it?"

Sonic chuckled. "Well, I definitely don't."

Lilac sighed and turned away.

"But..." Sonic said coyly. "I may know a friend that could do something about it."

Lilac turned back to him. "Can you tell me where he is?"

"He's out there in the mountains." He pointed. "But it's a long ways away. It'll be past dark by the time you get there."

Lilac looked at the distant hills and smiled. "I'm pretty fast. I bet I could get there pretty quickly."

"Oh really?" Sonic said with a grin. "Cause I'd bet I could beat you there."

Lilac laughed. He obviously didn't have dragons on his planet. "Okay then. You wanna bet?"

Sonic shrugged. "Might as well. It'll give me something to do."

Lilac smiled. She couldn't wait to one-up this alien jerk. "It's a race then."

He grinned. "Awesome. This oughta be good."

"Okay then," Lilac said. She turned towards the distant hills and pointed. "First one to the mountains is the winner."

Sonic nodded. "My friend's just up there, at the top of that flat hill." He pointed to a tall mountain with a peakless top.

"Alright." Lilac said. "Let's get started." She bent down into a starting position, as if she was preparing for a track competition.

Sonic laughed at her, while stretching his arms above his head. "Tell you what, why don't I give you a head start?"

Lilac smiled. "Your loss."

Sonic grinned. "Ready? Three. Two. One. Go!"

Lilac gathered energy and boosted down the hill at a blinding speed, leaving the blue hedgehog in a cloud of dust.

 _Well how about that?_ Sonic thought, looking at the purple blur dash off towards the mountains.

Lilac couldn't help laughing to herself as she ran. _I almost feel bad for him. Ah well, he did ask for it._

She watched the mountains getting quickly closer and closer. _Won't be too long now. Just gotta..._

"Hey, you're better than I thought."

Lilac looked behind her and, to her surprise, saw Sonic matching her pace.

"But," He said with a grin, then like lightning, dashed around her until he was in front of her, running backwards. "You're still too slow!"

Then, with a small wave, he turned around and dashed away so quickly that he left a blue trail behind him. The trail of light continued it's path towards the mountains, until it reached the peakless hill, and ran straight up the side of the cliff.

Lilac was so stunned that she didn't even notice that she had stopped running. _How?_ She thought. _He's going twice as fast as me._

She felt anger well up inside her chest. _That irritating little..._ She shook her head. _That can't be real. I've never met anybody faster than me._

But she couldn't argue with what she had just seen. Not only was there someone faster than her, but he was so fast that she couldn't even begin to compete with him.

She sighed, and began to run again, much slower than before.

* * *

It didn't take her long to reach the mountain and to start the climb up, but to her it felt like hours. Her mind was torturing her with whatever Sonic and his friend could be talking about at that moment.

" _So then, she said 'It's a race then!'" "Wow, what a loser." "I know, right? Can you believe it, someone thinking that they're faster than me?"_

She growled under her breath. In the back of her mind, she knew that she should try to act civil, so that she could convince them to give her and her friends the help they needed. But at the same time, she was so embarrassed at being outmatched by Sonic that she was feeling incredibly defensive.

She reached the top of the cliff and jumped up onto the flat top. She tried to look around for Sonic and his friend, while at the same time keeping her head down so that they wouldn't be able to meet her eyes.

The first thing she saw was a small, blue bi-plane sitting just a little ways away from the edge of the cliff. She couldn't see anyone near it, but it was the only thing up on top of the hill, so she started to walk towards it.

She called out to see if anyone was around. "Hello?"

She heard a sudden clang behind the plane, followed by a loud, "Ow!" A head popped up from the other side of the plane.

"Oh, hello there!" It said. He walked around the side of the plane, and Lilac saw that he was a short fox, similar to Mayor Zao, except that he had, to her surprise, two tails. These tails were each slowly swinging around behind him as if they had a mind of their own.

"You're new around here, aren't you?" The fox said. He was holding a dirty rag, and was wiping his hands on it.

Lilac looked around. She wasn't sure if this was the friend Sonic was talking about. "Um, yeah, I am."

The fox nodded. "It's nice to meet you. My name's Tails."

Lilac smiled. She knew that that had to have been a nickname, or else his mother must have been incredibly cruel. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Lilac. Are you Sonic's friend?"

Tails looked surprised. "You know Sonic?"

Lilac nodded. "Yeah. I met him down there," She pointed, "and he said that you could give me some help. I saw him come up here, did you not see him?"

"No, he didn't." They looked up towards the plane and saw Sonic leisurely laying back on the top wing. "He was too busy with his little plane."

Tails jumped up in surprise. "Oh, hi Sonic!" He said. "I didn't see you come up here!"

Sonic nodded. "Long time, no see Tails. Where've you been lately?"

Tails shrugged. "Nowhere really. I've been working on the Tornado for the past few days." He gestured towards the plane. "Although, I think I've managed to increase the engine output by almost six percent!"

Tails seemed excited by this, but Sonic merely shrugged. "That's nice. What about Eggman?"

Tails shook his head. "I haven't seen him at all lately. I don't know what he's planning, but he's not doing anything at the moment.

Lilac coughed into her hand, trying to get their attention.

"Oh yeah!" Tails spun around. "Sorry, Lilac was it?"

Lilac nodded.

"Right. You said you needed help?"

Lilac nodded again. "Yeah. Me and my friends have crashed our ship. We need some help fixing it."

Tails smiled. "Well, if you need help fixing something, you've come to the right fox! Show me where it is, and I'll patch it up as good as new!"

Lilac smiled. "Thank you so much Tails. I can't tell you how much we appreciate this."

Tails shrugged. "It's nothing. I'm just happy to help. Give me a second to get my tools, and you can show me where the crash is."

"Right."

Tails walked back to the Tornado. "You wanna come Sonic?"

Lilac was silently hoping he wouldn't, but to her disappointment, he shrugged and said, "Why not?"

"Great!" Tails said. "Let's get going!"

* * *

Minutes later, Tails had loaded everything he needed into his plane and the three had gotten ready to set out. Lilac had given Tails some general directions, but he was confident that the Tornado's radar would be able to find the crash's exact location.

"So, how did you meet Sonic?" Tails asked Lilac, as he was loading the final toolbox into the plane's small cargo hatch.

"I was just running around, looking for some help, when I found him lying in a tree."

Tails smiled. "He does that alot. If he's not running around faster than the speed of sound, he's usually just resting in a tree or on a hill."

Lilac looked over at Sonic, who was standing on the edge of the cliff with his arms crossed, looking out over the grasslands. "How does he go so fast?"

Tails shrugged. "I don't know exactly. That's just the way he is. But he's done some amazing stuff. He can outrun almost anything he wants. It's really cool, isn't it?"

Lilac looked sullen. "Yeah, I guess."

Tails didn't notice Lilac's sour mood. "You ready to set out?"

"I guess."

"Sonic!" He called. "We're ready!"

Sonic turned around, gave Tails a thumbs up, and then with a flash of blue and a slight rush of wind, he was suddenly on top of the Tornado's top wing.

 _He doesn't even need to build up speed._ Lilac thought. _He's just there instantly._

Lilac knew she shouldn't care as much as she did, but she had always been the fastest person she knew. Back on Avalice, she had been able to escape from the police easily, outrun the other members of the Scarves on their motorbikes, and match speeds with some of Brevon's biggest machines. And yet, here was this strange, random alien who happened to have the ability to run at the speed of sound. She was having a hard time wrapping her head around it.

"Are you coming Lilac?" Tails called.

Lilac was startled out of her trance. "Yeah, sorry." She jogged over to the Tornado and jumped up into the seat in the back.

"Okay, you two ready?" Tails called out.

"I'm ready." Lilac said, buckling herself to the seat.

Sonic simply nodded, and Lilac suddenly noticed that Sonic, rather than sitting in a seat, was leisurely standing on the Tornado's top wing.

Lilac was tempted to ask Tails about it, but before she could, Tails started the engine and the Tornado's propeller revved to life. The plane began to creep forward, faster and faster, until it came to the cliff's edge. It flew off of the edge and began its flight over the mountains, and towards the grasslands.

* * *

 **Radiation Levels: Minimal**

 **Required Protection: None**

Torque sighed with relief as he put his scanner away. That was going to make things much easier for him.

He looked out from behind the tree up at the massive, looming shadow of the wrecked dreadnought. The ship had looked surprisingly intact from a distance, but now that Torque was standing in it's shadow, seeing it's mangled hull and the pieces falling off like drops of water, he suspected that it would never leave the ground again.

He looked down at his scanner, then back up at the ship. _Should I risk it?_ He asked himself. _Should I risk going in?_

He knew that if he just found the Stone now, he would save a lot of time and trouble for all of them. But at the same time, he had promised Lilac that he wouldn't go inside without them.

He sighed and shook his head. _Sorry Lilac. But I've made up my mind._ The girls had been through enough. He didn't want to put them through any more than was necessary.

He stepped out from behind the tree, blaster in hand, and began a careful walk towards the massive structure.

Torque felt his heart began to beat faster as he stepped closer to the dreadnought. _Now that I think about it._ He thought. _I'm not too thrilled to go back in either._

He activated his jets and jumped up the side of the massive mound of dirt that the ship had pushed up when it hit the ground. He scanned the side of the ship, looking for a hatch or an airlock, some way to get back inside.

He heard a loud creaking somewhere far above him. The haunting sound made his heart race and his palms sweat. He felt almost as though the ominous sounds coming from the wreck foretold some dark doom.

He shook his head. _Calm down Torque. You're going to be fine. I'll be out before you can..._

A sudden deafening crash almost caused him to lose his balance and tumble down the mound of dirt.

He spun around and a ways away to his right, he saw that a large metal plate had fallen off of the dreadnought and crashed into the ground, throwing up dust around it. He sighed and shook his head, trying to calm down.

"I'm getting too jumpy." He told himself. He turned back around, just in time to see a steel fist come flying towards him.


	6. Chapter 6

Lilac was surprised at the Tornado's power. Even though it looked like a simple propeller plane, like Torque's plane back on Avalice, it was sailing through the air like a hunting eagle. She couldn't believe her luck at finding an obviously skilled engineer like Tails.

She looked out over the beautiful grasslands as they sailed by below her. "This is amazing." She said to herself.

She remembered a conversation she had with Carol back on Avalice just days before. She had said they should go on a space adventure sometime, and Lilac had wholeheartedly agreed. Who could have known that their wish would come true so soon?

She sighed, thinking about Carol. She felt bad about making her stay near the ship. After all, how often does one get the chance to explore a world other than their own? Lilac understood how badly her friend wanted to get up and move around. She would have to make it up to Carol as soon as she could.

"I bet we'll have enough time to explore tomorrow. Maybe more than that. Who knows how long it'll take to fix the ship?"

"Sorry, what was that?" Tails called over the roar of the engine.

"Nothing." Lilac said. "Has your radar picked up the ship?"

Tails looked over his shoulder and nodded. "I think so! I'm detecting something just a little bit from here! We'll be there in a flash!"

"So," Sonic said, not looking down at Lilac. "How'd you end up crashing your ship anyway?"

Lilac thought a minute on what to say. She wasn't sure how well they would take to her if they found out she was an alien, so she answered vaguely. "It's a long story."

"Well, we'd be excited to hear it!" Tails said enthusiastically. "Right Sonic?" He looked up at the hedgehog.

Sonic shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

Lilac frowned at him. She was disliking the hedgehog more and more every time he opened his mouth.

"Oh! Lilac! I think I see it!" Tails pointed just ahead of their current direction. "Is that it?"

Lilac leaned over in her seat and saw in the distance a long, brown scar in the landscape, tipped with a glimmer of red metal.

"Yep. That's it alright!"

"Fantastic! I'll let us down near the site."

With that, Tails turned the Tornado's nose down towards the ground and prepared to land the plane.

Lilac felt her hands clench onto the sides of the plane as the ground began to get closer. She hadn't had too many good experiences with landing lately, so she couldn't help but worry.

Her fears were for naught, as Tails set the Tornado down expertly, so much so that Lilac could barely tell when they touched down.

"Ok then," Tails said when the plane slid to a stop. "Let me get my tools and then you can introduce us to your buddies."

"Yeah!" Lilac jumped out of the Tornado. "They'll be excited to see you. I'll go tell them."

"I'm coming." Sonic said, jumping off of the Tornado's wing. "See you in a sec Tails."

Lilac looked at the hedgehog coldly, who gave her a coy grin. "Sure, whatever." She said. "Come on."

The purple dragon and the blue hedgehog began to walk to the wrecked red pod. "So Lilac," Sonic said, trying to start up a conversation. "Where're you from exactly?"

"I'm... uh..." Lilac struggled to think what to say. She was worried that they might get suspicious if she continued to be vague. "It's this place called Avalice. It's... really far away from here."

"Is it full of 'dragons' too?" He said with a grin.

Lilac glared at him. "No. Actually, dragons like me are kinda rare."

"Do any of them breathe fire?" He said, putting one arm on his hip and using the other to rub his nose.

Lilac looked at him questioningly. "Well, yeah. I can't because I'm a water dragon, but I've heard of fire dragons before. I've never met one though."

"Water dragon." Sonic repeated with a smile. "Are all of your friends dragons too?"

Lilac shook her head. "No. Carol's a wildcat, Milla is a hound, and Torque's..."

As they drew closer to the pod, Lilac suddenly noticed something that filled her heart with dread. She couldn't see Carol or Milla anywhere near the pod.

"Carol?" She called, running ahead of Sonic to the pod.

"Carol?" She called again, frantically running around the ship, looking for her friends. "Milla?"

"CAROL!" She screamed, for no reason other than to scream. _I can't believe it! That irresponsible furball! She ran off and took Milla with her. They're going to get themselves hurt or killed!_

"Dang it Carol!" She yelled, kicking the side of the pod, leaving a good dent in its hull. "For one day, ONE day, can't you take something seriously?"

"Having problems?" Lilac spun around to see Sonic looking at her with a slight smirk. The sight made her even more angry than she already was.

"No I am not! And I don't need any help from you!" She spun around and stomped away.

She normally wouldn't have been so rude, but she was so angry at Carol that she was having difficulty thinking straight. She sat down with her back to the ship, trying to calm down.

Sonic followed and sat beside her. "Your friend does stuff like this a lot?"

Lilac sighed deeply, remaining silent for a second. "Yeah, she does." She said. "But I thought she would have more sense than to do it here."

"She have a problem sitting still?"

Lilac nodded.

Sonic grinned. "I can relate to that." He stood up. "Don't get yourself so worked up. We'll search around a bit and find them. No sweat!"

Lilac shook her head. "We've got no idea which way they went. They could be anywhere."

* * *

Carol jumped off her bike with a sigh. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She had been riding around for what seemed like an eternity, and she hadn't found anything exciting yet.

 _This is stupid._ She thought. _A whole alien planet, and nothing's cool or weird. Everything looks just like stuff back home._

She looked around, desperate to catch a glimpse of something unusual. But she could see nothing.

She sighed again. "Maybe I should just head back."

She looked up at the sky, shielding her eyes. The Sun was still high, but she could tell it would begin to set soon.

"Aw crap." She said, kicking the grass in exasperation. "What a waste of time."

She reluctantly got back on the red motorcycle, revved it up, and started her journey back to the pod.

 _I hope I get back before Lilac and Torque do._ She thought. _Sure would suck if I got chewed out for nothing._

She vaguely wondered if Lilac had found anyone that could help them yet. Carol doubted it, since she hadn't found any signs of life while she was wandering around.

Carol felt her eyes begin to droop as she sped along the grassy plains. _I need a cat nap._

She let out a great yawn, her mouth opening wide and her eyes closing shut. But as she did this, a sudden, ear piercing scream almost startled her off of the bike.

"Eeek!"

Carol's eyes shot open, just in time to see something white shoot out of her path. She swerved the bike to the side, trying desperately to stop.

When the bike spun to a stop, Carol jumped off and ran to see what she had almost hit.

"Hello?" She called out. "Who's there?"

Slowly, a head rose up from where it was hiding in the grass.

"Hi Carol..." Milla said timidly, putting her hands behind her back.

"Milla?" Carol looked around to see if she was alone. "What're you doing here?"

"I... I followed you. I wanted to see where you were going."

"Oh." Carol suddenly remembered why she was supposed to be here. "Yeah. Hehe. Sorry, but I couldn't find a flower anywhere. I looked forever, but..."

"Carol," Milla interrupted. "I know you weren't looking for a flower. I know you just wanted to explore."

"Oh. Uh..." Carol smiled sheepishly. "I guess I can't fool you. But then why did you follow me if you knew?"

"I... well, I..." She put her hands behind her back and blushed deeply. "I... kind of wanted to explore too."

Carol grinned broadly. "So you disobeyed Lilac and left the ship?"

Milla's eyes dropped downward in shame. "I'm sorry."

"Are you kidding?" Carol said brightly. "That's awesome! There might be hope for you yet!"

Milla's eyes brightened and her tail began to wag gently.

"Come on," Carol said. "Let's get back before Torque and Lilac do."

"Okay!" She ran over to Carol's side on all fours, and the two began to walk back to Carol's motorcycle.

Milla sighed happily as they walked along. "This place is really pretty, isn't it?"

Carol shrugged, looking around at the ocean of grass around them. "I don't know. I guess. Kinda wish there was more to see than just grass."

"Oh. Well, did... did you see that really big hole?"

Carol looked over at Milla in surprise. "No. What big hole?"

"Oh, well, when I was following you, I saw this really, really big hole in the ground. It had a really pretty lake in the middle of it."

"What? How did I miss it?"

"There were these really big hills all around it. I couldn't see it unless I was on top of the hills."

Carol smiled broadly. "Think you can find it again?"

Milla smiled and nodded. "I think so."

"Great! Let's go quick, we don't have much time." Carol jogged the rest of the way to her motorcycle, and waited while Milla did the same.

The two girls jumped onto the bike and within seconds, they were speeding back across the plains.

 _Maybe Milla's not so bad after all._ Carol thought. _At least this won't be a total waste of time._

* * *

Torque cried out as the fist connected with his face and threw him backwards. He fell down and tumbled down the mound of earth, landing sharply on his injured arm. He bit his lip, trying to hold in a yell as pain shot through his arm.

He got back on his feet, taking his blaster out, and looked for his attacker. His eyes fell upon someone he never thought he'd see again.

"Tcyahahaha! Hello again, Commander!" General Serpentine hissed.

"General. " Torque aimed his blaster towards the mechanical armed snake. "You survived the crash."

"As did you." Serpentine said, pointing his own blaster at the Chaser. "How fortunate. Now I can rip you into pieces personally!"

"Yeah, sorry, but I'm just passing through. Call me later, and we can make an appointment."

"Don't mock me duckman!" Serpentine roared. "Or I'll tear your teeth out and force you to eat them!"

"Duckman? Really Serpentine, it was just a disguise, you don't have to keep calling me 'duck.' And how am I supposed to eat my teeth if you've knocked them out?"

"You... I would..." Serpentine stuttered. "SHUT IT CHASER!"

Torque smiled. He loved how easy it was to get Brevon's former general furious. He knew he'd better be careful however, as Serpentine was still a very dangerous opponent. His mechanical arms boasted more weapons than some starfighters, and he was exceptionally trigger happy.

Serpentine looked around, keeping his blaster trained on Torque. "Where are those revolting animals you keep around? I'd be a shame if I couldn't take my revenge on those freaks!"

Torque laughed. "Take revenge? You couldn't if you tried! Lilac and the others have proven that they're a match for anything you can throw at them, including Brevon himself. You've got nothing left, General."

"Tchya!" Serpentine spat. "You're lying! Nobody alive can defeat Lord Brevon, especially not a pack of rats from some backwater planet!"

"Believe it snakeman! Your master is gone, your army's destroyed, and your ship is toast! In my book, I'm pretty sure that counts as a loss."

"I... I... you..." He growled and bared his fangs. "You Chaser scum! I'll blow your brains across the galaxy!"

He shot out a volley of glowing blue lasers directly at Torque's head. The Chaser activated his jets and jumped out of the path of the lasers.

In the air, Torque aimed his own blaster at the snake and returned fire. Serpentine twisted around and dashed away, seeking cover from the Chaser's barrage.

Torque did the same, landing on the ground and dashing to a fallen piece of the dreadnought, jumping behind just in time to avoid Serpentine's counterattack.

Serpentine laughed maniacally as his shots pounded against the Chaser's cover. Torque hunkered down behind the debris, assessing his options.

 _I'm not going to last long without cover. He's not going to give me many chances to shoot back. I just need to get close to him._

He looked at his injured arm with annoyance. His blaster was meant to be used with two hands. It would be very difficult to shoot straight with only one arm.

He looked around at the debris left behind by the dreadnought, and mapped out a path he could take in order to close the gap between him and Serpentine. He only needed one good shot to take him out. He just needed to get close to him first.

He jumped out from his cover and dashed to the nearest piece of debris, covering his flight with a flurry of shots. Serpentine growled as he dodged the Chaser's scattered shots.

"What's the matter Commander?" He taunted. "Losing your cool?"

"Nah." Torque called from behind his cover. "It's just kinda tough to shoot with one arm. Well, I should be grateful. At least I've got arms!"

"GAH! SHUT UP!"

Serpentine loaded and launched a rocket at the Chaser. Torque watched the rocket fly towards him.

"Three, two, one!" Just before the rocket hit, Torque dashed out from his cover. The rocket exploded, forcing Serpentine to shut his eyes against the bright flash.

The serpent general dashed over to the black mark left behind by his explosive shot. The rocket had shredded the debris into pieces.

Serpentine laughed evilly. "Tchaha! Chaser scum!"

He continued to laugh, enjoying his victory, until he heard a voice behind him. "Really Serpentine, this is the second time you've fallen for that."

The snake spun around, just in time to see Torque's blaster fire a bolt of electricity directly at him.

The bolt caught him in his chestplate, and the general began to shake and jerk violently. He began to make choking, sputtering sounds, and his vision began to blur into darkness.

He fell forward comically onto his face, his forked tongue sticking out of his mouth, his eyes staring blankly ahead.

Torque got down on his knees to examine the serpent. He didn't know where to check for a heartbeat or a pulse, but he could tell that the snake was still breathing.

He got back up onto his feet. "Well General, that was fun, but I've really got to go now."

He picked the general up and dragged him to the side of the wrecked dreadnought. There, he found a pipe sticking out from the ship and cuffed one of Serpentine's mechanical arms to the pipe.

"You just stay here." He said with a smile. "I'll get you when it's time to go."

Serpentine made a hoarse gurgling sound in the back of his throat.

Torque sighed as he looked at the unconscious general. _What are we going to do with you?_

Having Serpentine here complicated things more than Torque would have liked. He knew that he should turn the snake over to the Coalition for disciplinary action, but he wasn't sure he would be able to keep the general under control while he and the girls figured a way off of the planet.

He shook his head. _I'll figure it out later. I need to focus on the task at hand._

He turned away from the chained serpent and started to search the wall again. Within a minute, he found a panel next to a small, man-sized hatch. He pulled the lever, and the hatch slowly opened into the pitch black of the wrecked dreadnought.

 _Here I go._ He thought. _Back into the dragon's stomach._

He suddenly laughed as Lilac's face came to his mind. _Not the best metaphor._

However, it seemed to do it's job, since the idea of being eaten by Lilac was so ridiculous that it calmed his nerves somewhat. He gripped his blaster tightly, and stepped into the enshrouding darkness.

* * *

"Wow." Carol was completely awed at the sight that stretched in front of her.

'Hole in the ground' didn't give it justice by a long run. It was more like a massive crater, almost perfectly round and reaching more than a mile wide.

Carol looked down the sheer cliff that led to the crater's floor. She guessed that it fell down dozens of feet before it touched ground that they could stand on.

She looked back up at the entirety of the crater. There was a great, blue lake right in the middle, like Milla said. But Carol also saw two huge rivers that split off one section of the crater like a piece of pizza. Besides the two rivers and the lake, the rest of the crater was blanketed with huge, evergreen trees, forming a thick forest.

"Do... do you like it?" Milla asked hopefully.

"Like it?" Carol exclaimed. "This is freaking awesome! I've never seen something like this before! Nice work Mil'!"

Milla positively beamed with joy. Not only did Carol like her discovery, but she gave her a nickname too! The young hound couldn't have felt prouder.

Carol examined the steep cliff, trying to figure out the best way to climb down. "C'mon! Let's get down there!" She jumped over the side and, using her claws, found a good handhold in the rock.

"What?" Milla said. "We... we're going down?"

"Yeah, of course! What's wrong?"

Milla looked over the steep cliff to the ground dozens of meters below. She suddenly felt very sick. "I... don't think I can climb down." She said timidly.

"Hey," The wildcat jumped back up next to the young dog. "You don't have to worry about anything. Just do what I do and you'll be fine!"

"But, I'm not a ninja like you are."

Carol grinned. "You think you need to be a ninja to climb a wall?"

"I... I don't know."

"Hey, seriously. I won't do anything that you can't do. And besides, even if you did fall, can't you just fly?"

"I guess."

"See? You'll be fine! Follow my lead, and we'll be down before you know it!"

Milla still looked nervous, but she looked up and nodded. "Okay Carol, I think I can do it."

"You bet you can! Let's go, we need to go fast." The agile cat jumped down onto the cliff's face and tried to find a good place for Milla to start her climb down

"Um... okay. Milla!"

"Yeah?" The hound called from above.

"Ya see that ledge right there?"

"Yeah."

"Put your feet on that ledge."

Milla's heart pounded as she lowered herself slowly down. _Don't look down. Don't look down._

Her feet touched the ledge. "Okay!" She called to Carol.

"Good, now you see that... uh... that hole thing in the rock?"

"Where?"

"Below you, on your right! I mean your left!"

 _This is harder than I thought._ Carol thought.

However, it didn't take long for Milla to get the hang of it, and soon, she was scaling the cliff with almost no help from Carol. _I'm doing really well!_ She thought with glee.

"Nice work girl!" Carol called up to the dog. "You wanna rest?"

"I'm okay!" She responded. "Besides, we're almost there!"

Carol looked down and, to her surprise, she saw that Milla was right. She had been so focused on guiding the hound that she hadn't noticed how close they were to the bottom.

Carol grinned mischievously as an idea formulated in her head. She looked back up at Milla. "See ya down there!" Then, with a wink, she let go of the cliff wall.

"CAROL!" Milla screamed as she watched the cat plummet to the ground.

Carol couldn't help laughing at Milla's terror. _She underestimates the pure awesomeness of wildcats._

While she was falling, she used her tail to flip around, spread her arms and legs out like she was skydiving, and landed deftly on the ground.

"Ta da!" She cried out, striking a triumphant pose.

"Wow." Milla couldn't believe that Carol could do something like that. But as she looked down at the wildcat, an idea formed in her head as well.

"Carol! I'm coming too!" Then, just like Carol did, she let go of the cliff wall and began to fall down.

"Hey, hey, woah!" Carol cried out. "Milla no! Don't!"

She ran forward desperately to try to catch the falling dog. However, before she hit the ground, Milla began flapping her long ears and her arms furiously, slowing her descent enough that she landed as gently as a butterfly.

Carol watched the young hound float down with a pounding heart. "Milla!" She yelled. "What the heck were you doing? You gave me a freaking heart attack!"

Milla's bright face fell. "I... I just wanted... I wanted to..." she put her hands behind her back and blushed. "I... I'm sorry."

Carol sighed. "Sorry. I didn't mean to... I mean..." She shook her head. "It's alright. I gotta admit, that was pretty cool." She put out her fist.

Milla stared at Carol's raised fist questioningly for a second, before realizing what she wanted.

"Oh!" She said, then returned the feline's fist bump.

Carol grinned. "Nice." She said, which made Milla giggle happily.

"C'mon!" Carol said, spinning around. "Let's explore this place!"

"Okay!" She ran up to Carol's side and the two entered the thick forest.


	7. Chapter 7

_**7 years earlier.**_

 _ **Planet Avalice. The streets of Shang Tu.**_

"Oh!"

Lilac cried out as she almost lost her balance and tumbled to the floor. She clenched the heavy paper bag tightly, hoping desperately that nothing would fall out onto the less than pristine alleyway ground.

She stumbled forward, until she gained her footing once again and stood up straight.

She sighed with relief, brushed back her hair, and held up the prize that had almost cost her and the others their meal for the night: A round, bright red Pangu Fruit, as ripe as you could get it.

'A fruit salad, covered in chocolate.' That was what Lilac's mother had always said about the Pangu Fruit, and Lilac had always shared her mother's love for the sweet treat. In a way, eating one always seemed to bring with it memories of times that she had shared with her mom. So her fondness extended beyond taste alone.

She threw the red fruit in the air, caught it, and was preparing to take a bite out of it when something caught her eye.

Sitting with her back to the wall, under the glow of a street lamp, was a young, green cat with large ears and large, green eyes that were looking longingly at the fruit in Lilac's hand. But when her green eyes met Lilac's magenta, she quickly looked down, trying to pretend that she hadn't noticed the dragon.

Lilac looked at the thin cat, then down at the fruit in her hand. _Why not?_

She walked over to the cat, bending down with the paper bag balanced on her hip and held out the red fruit.

"You want this?"

The cat looked up with surprise in her eyes. "W... what?" She stuttered.

"You want this?" Lilac repeated. "You look kinda hungry."

The cat seemed stunned, as though she was being offered a bar of gold. "I... I guess I can... I mean, if you don't... I can... um... sure." She reached out and grabbed the fruit. She stared at it hungrily, but bit into it rather nonchalantly, trying to express an air of coolness.

Lilac smiled. "You're in the Scarves, aren't you?"

The cat looked up from her meal, and saw that she and the dragon were wearing matching uniforms. "Uh, yeah. Kinda."

"Funny. I don't think I've seen you around."

"Uh, yeah. I've only... um... been a member for... I think a couple of weeks now. I've seen you around though!"

"Oh? You have?"

"Yeah! Totally!" The cat seemed to get passionate. "You're Sash the Dragon Girl! You've won like, a hundred karate fights!"

Lilac laughed. "You can just call me Lilac."

The cat nodded. "Yeah, sure. Totally!"

"What's your name?"

"I'm Carol."

"Carol." Lilac repeated. "That's really pretty. Nice to meet you."

Carol nodded. "Yeah, same."

"What are you doing out here?" She gestured around at the dark alley around them.

"Oh, um. Kinda a funny story." She smiled nervously and put her hand behind her head. "See, I kinda... pissed off this group of jerks and they... chased me out."

"What did you do?"

"Hey," Carol said, getting defensive, "it was just a prank. Those guys really need to learn how to take a joke! Besides, they had it comin'!"

"Calm down." Lilac said. "I'm not accusing you. Just tell me what happened."

"I... uh... I put cans of shaving cream in the exhaust pipes of their motorcycles."

Lilac laughed out loud. "That was you? You put shaving cream in the bikes of Khar and his goons?"

"Uh, yeah. I did."

"Oh, that was awesome! I heard that one of the exhaust pipes just exploded into a bunch of white foam!"

Carol grinned. "Yeah, it was pretty funny." Her face fell. "But when they found out I was the one who did it, they came after me. They beat me up and threw me out of the hideout."

Lilac furrowed her brow. "That's terrible! How long have you been out here?"

"Just a few days. It hasn't really been that bad." As she said this, she hungrily took another bite of the Pangu Fruit.

"Well," Lilac said, standing up, "I'm going to set things right! I hate it when Khar and his cronies mess with people, I'm gonna give them a piece of my mind!"

"Really?" Carol stood up excitedly. "Oh man! This is awesome! I have a friggin' dragon on my side!"

Lilac nodded. "You'd better believe it girl!"

Carol was ecstatic. "Aw, yeah! You're gonna be all like, 'You messing with her?' and they're gonna be like, 'No, please!' and you're gonna go all, 'Wow, BAM!' on them!"

Lilac laughed. "I don't think I'm going to fight them. I'm just going to talk to them."

Carol scoffed. "I don't think Baron von Butthead is gonna listen to you."

Lilac shrugged. "I don't either. But if he doesn't, I can talk to Spade and get him to make them leave you alone."

"Wait, you know Spade?"

"Yeah, I do!"

Carol became even more excited. "That's awesome! What's he like?"

"Oh, I don't know, he's pretty cool. He's really cute if that's what you mean." She ended with a grin.

"Ew, no! I totally didn't mean that!" Carol stuck out her tongue in disgust.

Lilac laughed. "You're not into guys?"

"Ew, no way! Never!"

"It's okay, neither am I."

"Okay, good."

"What do you like?"

"Uh," she shrugged. "I dunno. Movies. Awesome stuff. You know."

Lilac smiled and nodded. "Yeah. I get that."

The two girls were interrupted by a sudden loud grumbling. Carol clutched her stomach in embarrassment. "Oh, uh." She grinned sheepishly. "You wouldn't happen to have anything else in that bag?"

Lilac laughed. "Come on. Let's get back to the hideout and give you a proper meal."

"Okay, that sounds awesome!" She dashed over to the dragon's side and the two began to walk through the silent streets.

* * *

By the time the two girls had journeyed through the streets of Shang Tu and entered the drainage tunnels in the bowels of the city, the young wildcat had grown on Lilac immensely. She liked her positive attitude and the enthusiasm in her voice.

And she was so, bouncy. The way she talked, the way she moved: It was filled with such a massive amount of energy that she seemed to be almost bursting at the seams. Whenever she got excited, she would throw her arms out in the air or she would jump up and down. Lilac had never met someone so energetic before.

"So Carol," Lilac said as they walked the dim tunnels underneath the city. "What made you want to join the Scarves?"

"Um, I dunno. I guess I technically didn't want to. Well, I did want to, but I didn't want to... um. I dunno, it's complicated."

"You can tell me." Lilac said with a warm smile.

"Okay, um. My family were all a bunch of ninjas..."

"What?"

"Well, no. I mean like, all'a my ancestors and stuff were. I mean, ninjas, you know."

"Okay." Lilac said with a nod.

"Yeah. So, my dad was an awesome ninja, and he taught my mom, and when he died, mom taught my sister and me."

"Sister?"

"Yeah. So, everything was good and stuff 'till, one day, my sister disappeared. Just, poof."

"What happened?"

Carol shrugged. "I dunno. I went out and looked for her for forever, but I never found a trace. Eventually, I gave up and went home, but Mom..." Her face took on a strange look. "She was never too happy that I couldn't find my sis, and one day, she got so mad that she just threw me out and told me to never come back.

"Oh Carol, I'm so sorry."

"It's all good. I've gotten over it." Despite her words, her face betrayed a deep sadness, and a resentment that Lilac could sense immediately.

"So, what did you do after that?"

"I just wandered around, trying to find a place to live, when this guy came up to me. He said he was with the Red Scarves, and I could join if I wanted to."

"And this was a few weeks ago?"

"No, it was a few months ago. I said no at first, just 'cause I wasn't big on the whole gang thing. But a few weeks ago, I changed my mind and hooked up with them."

"Wow." Lilac said. "You've been through a lot."

Carol shrugged. "It doesn't matter, I'm okay. I mean, it makes me sad and stuff, but I'm not like, really depressed."

"That's good."

"Yeah..."

The girls walked through the dim tunnels in silence until Carol once again spoke up. "So, what's your story then?"

Lilac thought for a minute. "Well, I lived on the outskirts of Shuigang when I was younger. My mom took care of me, because my dad was never around."

"What happened to him?"

Lilac shrugged. "I don't know, I never knew him. Mom said he was still alive, but she would never tell me where he was."

"Oh. Okay."

Lilac continued. "So, it was just me and my mom for a long time. Everything was alright until Spade came along."

"You knew Spade back then?"

Lilac nodded. "Yeah. I met him one day outside the Shuigang palace, and almost every day after that, we would hook up and cause trouble all throughout the city." She smiled. "I can't tell you how many times we almost got arrested. It felt so awesome to have a cool friend like Spade."

"What happened next?"

"Well, one day Spade came up to me and told me he was leaving Shuigang and joining the Red Scarves. He wanted me to come with, but I couldn't leave Mom behind, so I said no. He left, and I stayed with Mom for a few more years. Everything was fine, until one day, Mom got really sick."

Lilac paused and bit her lip as sad memories came flooding into her mind. "The doctors tried to save her, but she only lived a few days after that."

"Dang. That sucks."

Lilac sighed sadly. "Yeah. After she died, I didn't know what to do. I was worried if anybody came for me, they would find out about some of the things I had done with Spade and send me to jail. I was scared, so I just ran. I didn't really have any friends to stay with, so I left Shuigang and tried to find Spade. Eventually, I found him and the Scarves, they took me in, and that's why I'm here now."

"Wow." Carol remained silent for a minute. "So, um, are you and Spade still like, best friends?"

"Well, no. Not really. I mean, we still talk, and we've gone on a bunch of jobs together, but it's never been the same as it used to be. We're not as close."

"How come?"

"I don't know. It's just..." Lilac thought for a second. "He's different than he used to be. I don't know why, but he's changed since he joined the Scarves, and it always made me uncomfortable."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Guys always act weird around girls, cause they're all scared of getting cooties."

"W... what?"

Carol grinned. "Cooties. It's this thing that every girl has, and if a boy gets infected with it, he turns into a girl too. And all of them are scared of it because guys are too stupid to realize that being a girl rocks."

"I don't..." Lilac began to laugh uncontrollably. "Where did you hear that?"

"Oh come on! Everyone knows about cooties."

"Well I don't." Lilac said, still laughing. "I think I'd remember something that crazy."

"It isn't crazy, it's... well, I don't know, but it's not crazy."

Lilac smiled. "Yeah, sure."

Carol rolled her eyes. "You're no fun."

The dragon laughed. "Well I'm pretty sure Spade isn't scared of getting 'cooties'."

"Well what's wrong with him then?"

"I told you, I don't know." Lilac paused for a minute. "Although, it does honestly worry me a bit. I'm not sure what could have happened to him, but..."

She stopped when she suddenly caught sight of Carol's face. The cat was staring intensely ahead of them deep into the dark of the tunnels, and her ears were perked up as though she was trying to hear the slightest of noises.

"Carol? What's wrong?"

"Thought I heard something."

"What?" Lilac followed the eyes of the young wildcat, but could see nothing in the black of the tunnels.

She was about to ask the wildcat what it was she heard, when they were suddenly ambushed by a horde of shadowy figures.

* * *

Before either of the girls had time to react, they were both surrounded by the mysterious attackers.

Three of them went for Carol, one of them backhanding her across the face. The young cat cried out as she was thrown backwards onto the ground.

"No!" Lilac cried. She dropped the heavy paper bag, spilling it's contents across the ground, and dashed towards her new friend's attackers. One of them threw a kick towards the dragon, trying to stop her in her tracks. But Lilac twisted around, dodging the kick and grabbing the leg of the attacker, using her momentum to flip him around onto his back.

 _These guys are Scarves._ She thought.

"Hold it!" She yelled, trying to stop the other five ambushers. "What the heck are you doing?"

They ignored her, one of the ninjas holding Carol down on the ground, while the remaining four surrounded the dragon, preparing to attack.

Lilac bent down, preparing to defend herself, when the ninja she had thrown to the ground suddenly used his arms to jump up and delivered a swift surprise kick from behind.

She cried out in pain as she stumbled forward, unable to fight back as two of the ninjas dashed towards her. One of them threw a vicious punch into her face, sending her spinning towards the ground.

Her head swam from the powerful attack, and her vision was filled with yellow stars. Before she knew what had happened, her arms were tied with a strong rope, and she was forced up to her knees.

She coughed, and tasted blood in her mouth. "Carol!" She cried. She tried to turn her head, and caught a glimpse of the wildcat being tied up like she was.

"Get offa me you bozos!" She yelled, trying to fight against her captor. She managed to slip out for a second and gave the ninja a wicked scratch across his face. He cried out and stumbled backwards, clutching his bleeding face.

Before she could take advantage of the opportunity, she was overwhelmed by three more ninjas, who forced her to the ground and beat her across the face.

"No!" Lilac yelled, and tried to help, but she was stopped by the ninja behind her, who made sure she was unable to stand.

Carol was tied up securely, and dragged over to where Lilac knelt. She was struggling fiercely, but could do nothing against the three ninjas holding her down.

"Carol!" She yelled. "Calm down! Don't struggle!"

"Don't struggle? These jerks are trying to kill us!"

"Shut it!" One of the ninjas yelled. "Don't cause trouble, and we won't kill you."

Carol responded by spitting in his face. The ninja slapped her across her cheek.

"Carol! Stop!" Lilac turned to their captors. "What do you want?"

"What we want," said one of the ninjas. "Is for this pile of filth to stay where she belongs!"

Lilac recognized the voice. "Khar? What are you talking about?"

The tallest ninja took off his hood to reveal the face of Soran Khar, a handsome, yet bulky crocodile with sharp teeth and unsettling green eyes.

Khar ignored her question, walking over to the ninja who had been clawed by Carol. "You okay?" He asked.

The ninja nodded. "It'll heal."

Khar nodded, then turned back around to Lilac and Carol. "You know," He said to Lilac. "I know I should be surprised that you're trying to help this gutter trash, but frankly, I'm not. You just always have to be Little Miss Heropants, don't you?"

Lilac heard Carol snicker. "What did he call you?"

"Shut it." The ninja behind her snarled.

"What do you want Khar?" Lilac demanded. "What're you trying to do?"

"I already told you." Khar growled. "I'm trying to keep filth like that out of the Scarves." He pointed to Carol.

"What are you talking about? She pulled a prank on you! That's no reason to leave her out to die!"

"A prank!?" He yelled. "You call my sister a prank?"

"W... what?"

"What did she tell you?"

"I..." Lilac turned to Carol, who was looking at the ground with shame in her eyes. "She said she put some shaving cream in your motorcycles."

Khar growled. "Oh, that was irritating all right, and she deserved a beating for it. But I'm not the kind of guy to kill someone for that."

He walked over to the wildcat, who shrunk back in fear. "No, I kill people when they abandon their partners on a job, and leave her to the cops!"

"Wait, do you mean Sira?"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay?" Carol yelled. "I didn't mean to run away, I just got scared!"

"Oh, boo hoo!" Khar snarled. "You got _scared._ I shouldn't really be surprised; rats are naturally cowards!"

"Stop!" Lilac yelled. "Carol, tell the truth. Were you the one who got Sira arrested?"

Carol refused to look at Lilac, her face expressing a deep guilt.

"You lied to me." Lilac said.

"You see?" Khar said. "She's nothing but a pile of sewer scum! She deserves to rot out on the streets for what she's done! Wouldn't you agree?"

Lilac looked at the broken young cat with a heavy heart, her mind racing furiously.

 _What's the right thing to do?_

She turned towards the angry crocodile defiantly. "No." She said.

Both Khar and Carol looked at her with surprise. "What?" Khar asked fiercely.

"I said no. Carol made a mistake Khar, and that mistake got your sister arrested. But that doesn't give you the right to do whatever you feel like!"

"Oh really?" He said with a wicked smile. "Cause I think it does. But of course, _Sash Lilac the Dragon Girl,"_ He said with contempt bubbling in his voice. "is too self-righteous to see that. What do you think boys?" He said, turning to the five ninjas. "Should we be the ones to finally set Miss Heropants straight?"

Four of the ninjas nodded, but one looked apprehensive. "Khar." He said. "You sure about this? I mean, the dragon is really close to Spade, and I don't want to get him upset."

"Don't worry." He said. "We can tell that pampered prince that she went traitor. You know how he feels about turncoats."

"Wait, what are you going to do?" Lilac asked.

Khar turned towards his prisoners, his green eyes narrowing. "We're going to make sure no one sees you filth again."

"No, please." Carol whimpered.

"Stop!" Lilac yelled. "You can't!"

Khar bared down on the defenseless girls, fists clenched and teeth bared.

* * *

"Hello? You in there?"

Lilac jumped out of her trance with a start. "Wha'?"

She looked up to see Sonic casually laying on top of the red pod, looking down at her. "You okay?"

"Oh, you're back. Sorry, I was thinking about something."

Sonic grinned. "You were like, totally zoned out. If you hadn't been drooling, I might have thought you were dead."

Lilac felt her face and, to her horror, found a trail of saliva on her cheek. "Oh no." She muttered and wiped the spit off. _I'm just begging him to make fun of me, aren't I?_

Sonic laughed, and jumped down to the spot she was sitting on. "What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing." She responded curtly.

Sonic merely shrugged. "Fine, have it your way."

Lilac looked at the hedgehog and sighed. _I've gotta stop being so rude to him._

"I was thinking back a few years ago, when I first met Carol."

"Oh really?"

Lilac nodded. "We met in an alley in Shang Tu. She was in a bit of trouble, and I helped her out."

"Shang Tu?" Sonic said with a coy grin. "I thought you said you were from 'Avalice'?"

 _Oh no._ "Oh, um... well... Shang Tu is a city on Avalice, I mean... Avalice is the place that Shang Tu is in... Avalice is a... you know..."

Her stutterings were thankfully interrupted by the dull roar of a distant engine. The two heroes looked to the sky and saw the blue Tornado beginning it's descent to the ground.

"Tails is back."

"I wonder if he saw anything." Lilac said. "You didn't, did you?"

Sonic shook his head. "I didn't find anyone. Your friends must have been traveling for quite a bit."

"They took Carol's motorcycle, so they could get pretty far pretty fast."

Sonic smiled. "You didn't say she had a motorcycle."

"Yeah. It's the only way she can keep up with me when I'm moving."

"It can keep up with you?" He chuckled. "Impressive bike."

Lilac looked at him questioningly. _Did he just compliment me?_

She tried to read his face, but he was staring up at the Tornado as it's yellow pilot prepared to touch down.

"C'mon." He said, gesturing to Lilac. "Let's see what he found."

Lilac nodded, and the two jogged over to the fox and his blue plane.

"Hey Tails." Lilac said. "Did you see them?"

One look at the fox's face made her heart sink. "Sorry Lilac, I couldn't find anyone." He looked at Sonic. "You didn't have any luck?"

"Nope. Couldn't find anything."

Lilac sighed and shook her head. "I'm sorry you guys have to do this. You shouldn't have to find the people you're trying to help."

Tails smiled. "It's really no problem."

"Yeah." Sonic said. "We've got nothing better to do."

Lilac glared at him, but didn't get angry. She was starting to learn that the hedgehog's wisecracks weren't meant with any ill will. "Well, even still, I hope we find them soon, so we can get the ship fixed and I can get out of your hair."

"Oh, but we've been having so much fun talking, haven't we?" Sonic said with a sly grin. He turned to Tails. "In fact, she was telling me a bit about where she's from, and it sounds like a pretty sweet place."

Lilac gulped. She wasn't sure what to think of the strange tone his voice had taken.

Tails noticed it too. "Sonic," he said. "What're you..."

"But," Sonic interrupted, turning back to Lilac. "You've been here for a while, so let me ask you; what do you think of Mobius so far?"

 _Mobius._ Lilac thought. _That must be what this place is called._

Lilac, not noticing the questioning look Tails was giving his friend, shrugged and looked around. "I dunno, it's pretty nice. I haven't been able to see that much of it, but..."

She stopped short as she caught sight of Sonic and Tails. The hedgehog was looking at her as a hunter does when he corners his prey, and Tails looked as though she had grown an extra head.

"Uh... guys?" Lilac asked. "You okay?"

"You..." Tails stuttered. "You're an alien?"

Lilac was stunned. "Wh... what? N... no... I'm not! I..."

Sonic just smiled smugly. "Yeah." He said. "Mobius is a pretty nice planet. I'm glad you're enjoying your visit."

"P... planet?"

Sonic just laughed, enjoying his little trick.

"So, are you?" Tails asked excitedly. "Are you really from another planet?"

"I... I..." The cornered dragon put her hand behind her head. "I... well... kinda, I guess."

"And you made it all the way here. That means..." The fox's face took on the same expression that a toddler gets in a toy store. Without a word, he dashed as fast as he could towards the red pod, intensely eager to study a piece of alien technology.

Lilac turned towards the hedgehog with a sheepish smile. "So, uh... how'd you know?"

Sonic laughed. "Are you kidding me? 'I'm not exactly from around here', 'My home's really far away.' Those are the most cliched 'I'm an alien' phrases of all time. You might as well be holding up a sign when you say stuff like that."

"But I..." Lilac shook her head and sighed. "Okay fine. I guess that was kinda obvious. I'm just not used to being the alien."

The two remained silent for a minute. "So, uh." Lilac said. "You don't mind?"

Sonic shrugged. "Why would I? You haven't tried to eat us yet, so you seem pretty cool."

"Uh, thanks?"

"And besides." He said with a grin. "It's pretty sweet to finally meet someone who's almost as fast as me. I don't think anyone else on this boring planet can even come close to keeping up with you."

 _Another compliment?_ Lilac thought. "Um, thanks."

Sonic nodded. "Well then Alien Girl, let's find your friends and get you off this boring planet!"

Lilac smiled. "Yeah! Let's roll!"

Sonic grinned broadly. "Now you're talkin'!"

* * *

 ** _AUTHOR'S NOTE:_** The first section of this chapter was inspired by a short comic, drawn by Wahahui. Check her out on Deviantart, she's an extremely talented artist who draws awesome anime-styled art.


	8. Chapter 8

"Okay, breathe in deeply. Keep your belly straight. Now, punch!"

Milla followed Carol's instructions, balling her fist and throwing it forward, trying to imagine some evildoer standing just ahead of her. "Ya!"

"Uh, nice. I guess. You just gotta..." Carol adjusted Milla's arm up a bit. "There. Like that."

"You mean..." The hound tried to once again copy her new mentor's instructions. _Breathe. Belly straight. Punch!_ "Haiya!"

The two girls stood in a clearing on the edge of the crystal blue lake, under the warm afternoon sun.

They hadn't wasted any of the time they had in the crater. Their past two hours had consisted of exploration, climbing trees, walking the river bank, swimming in the lake, and even a quick game of Hide and Seek.

Currently, Carol was, at Milla's request, teaching the young hound a few basic karate moves. At first, Carol was ecstatic to show off her skills, however, she came to realize that teaching was more difficult than she had first thought.

"No, not like that. It's more..."

Carol took a fighting stance and demonstrated the punch she was trying to teach, while Milla watched attentively, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong.

"Um... you mean, like this?" Milla tried her best to copy exactly what her feline friend was trying to show her.

Carol sighed. "How 'bout we try some kicks?"

Milla blushed. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's okay, you're doing fine! Let's... just try something else."

Milla nodded, while Carol tried to think of a good kick she could demonstrate.

"'Kay, watch this."

Carol bent down, with her arms outstretched and her tail sticking straight up. Slowly, she began twisting her abdomen to the side until, as fast as lightning, she unleashed a sweeping kick that would have broken the bones of anyone unfortunate enough to be hit by it.

"You see that?" She said, turning to her young student.

"Um. I... I think so."

"Try it."

Milla nodded hesitantly. She bent down, trying to imitate Carol's footing. She stretched her arms to the side, shakily twisted her body around, then, with a loud "Ha!", she tried to imitate Carol's powerful kick.

Before she knew what had happened, the young dog was staring at the sky, flat on her back.

"You okay?" Carol laughed as she helped her back to her feet.

"Yeah." She said. "I'm okay."

"Good. Try it again, and how 'bout you try using your tail to balance yourself?"

"What?"

"Well, um, as you're kicking, it's good to... uh, try and use your tail as a... you know, a counterbalance. I guess."

Milla looked back at her tail, slowly swaying about behind her. She wasn't sure what Carol was talking about.

"Do it again."

Milla nodded, then bent down into the same fighting stance. She copied the steps that Carol showed her, trying to use her tail as a counterbalance, and tried once again to imitate the kick that Carol had shown her.

The result was that she once again lost her footing, and ended up flat on her face.

Carol sighed and shook her head. _She's not cut out for this._

But she tried to keep a positive face as she helped the hound to her feet. "Nice try. This time, you just gotta..."

She stopped as she noticed tears forming at the edges of Milla's green eyes.

"Hey hey, woah. Milla, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Milla said with a quivering voice, quickly wiping her eyes.

"Hey, c'mon, tell me."

"I... I'm not..." She sniffled and dropped her eyes to the ground. "I'm never going to be a ninja like you."

"I... uh." Carol wasn't sure what to say.

 _Dang it, Lilac is better at this stuff._

"Hey, uh, c'mon Milla, buck up! You were doing great!"

Milla sniffed and turned away.

Carol racked her brain trying to figure out how to cheer her friend up. She was almost tempted to try and walk away, let Milla cool down, when an idea crossed her mind.

"Hey, um, Milla. Did... did I ever tell you 'bout my sister?"

Milla turned around in surprise. "You have a sister?"

Carol nodded. "Yeah. Well, kinda."

She sat down on the grass and Milla followed suit. "See, uh." Carol continued. "When I was a kid, me and my sister lived with my mom. We were always happy and stuff; Coral and I were always really tight."

Milla giggled. "Your sister's name was Coral?"

Carol smiled. "Yeah. 'Carol and Coral.' Kinda weird, right?"

"I think it's cute."

"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, even though we usually got along, sometimes, I would get kinda jealous of her."

"Really? Why?"

Carol shrugged. "She was just so much better at everything than me. She was smarter, faster, a better fighter. She was the superstar of the family, and I was the goofy screwup, you know?"

Milla had a hard time believing that anyone could outmatch Carol at anything, but she listened attentively anyway.

"So, yeah. Like I said, we usually were pretty tight, but one day, I totally blew up at her."

"Why?"

"I... well, I was just fed up with bein' second best. So I took it out on her. It was honestly sorta childish, but I was just mad, you know?"

Milla nodded.

"So, yeah. I was kind of a jerk to her, and honestly I called her some nasty things. But instead of gettin' mad, you know what Coral did?"

"What?"

"From that day forward, she promised to train me, at least until I was even better than her. And she did. Almost every day after that, we would hook up, go out to this one spot out in the woods, and she would just help me train."

"Wow." Milla said. "That was really sweet of her."

"You're tellin' me." Carol said. "She's the reason I'm such an awesome ninja today. I never would have gotten anywhere if it weren't for her."

Milla looked down at the ground sadly. "I wish I had a sister like that."

Carol smiled. "Why do you think I'm tellin' you about all this?"

"What?"

Carol stood up, and raised her left hand. "I, Carol Tea, solemnly swear that from this day forth, I will train Milla Basset, until she becomes an epic, buttkicking machine, no matter how hard it is, or how long it takes."

"What? Really? Oh, thank you Carol! Thank you so much!" The young hound was so overjoyed that she jumped up and ran to hug her friend.

Carol, despite feeling uncomfortable in Milla's embrace, was pleased at how happy she was. "Hey, it's nothing. We're buddies, aren't we?"

When Carol eventually pushed the excited hound off of her, she continued talking. "You know, this isn't gonna be a walk in the park, learning how to be a ninja is pretty dang tough. You sure you're up to it?"

Milla nodded. "Yeah. I think so."

"Awesome." Carol looked up at the afternoon sky and sighed. "Whaddaya think? Should we head back?"

"Oh." Milla looked up at the sky as well. She had almost forgotten that they had limited time. "Well, I guess. I don't want Lilac or Torque to be mad at us."

Carol shook her head. "I doubt they're gonna be back to the ship anytime soon. I just think it's time to go."

Milla nodded and smiled. "Okay, let's go."

The girls stood up and began their journey away from the blue lake, and into the blanket of tall, evergreen trees.

While they were walking, Carol couldn't help thinking about the promise she had just made to her young friend.

 _I wonder if she's ever gonna get the hang of it. It would be pretty funny if she ended up bein' even better than me and Lilac._

She smiled as an image of Milla, clad in full ninja gear, fighting a horde of zombie samurai came to her mind.

 _That would be so epic._

"Hey, um, Carol?"

Milla's voice brought her out of her daydream. "Yeah?"

"What... what ever happened to Coral?"

"Oh, um. Well, she kinda... disappeared, I guess."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. One day, she was there, and everything was fine. But the next day, I went to our spot in the woods, and she never showed up. I never saw her again."

"Oh, that's so sad."

"It's okay. It was a long time ago. I've gotten over it."

"Do you miss her?"

"Well, yeah. Of course I do. But, really, I've moved on. You can only really be sad for so long."

"Yeah..."

The girls walked through the forest in silence, as Carol's mind was plagued with thoughts of her sister.

 _I wonder what she would think of me if she saw me now._

Carol's life definitely had taken a turn for the strange lately. Just a few days ago, she had been living a carefree life in a small treehouse with her best friend. Now, she was stranded on another planet, just after toppling the entire army of an evil alien invader. Whatever adventures Coral had had since she left, Carol had a sneaking suspicion that they were nothing compared to her own.

And yet, Carol wouldn't mind giving it all up, just to see her sister again. She was careful to never let it show, but sometimes, she missed Coral so much that it almost hurt her. Carol wished more than anything that she could find her again.

"Um, Carol?"

Carol didn't notice Milla's voice, she was far too deep in thought.

"Hey, uh, Carol?" Milla tugged on the wildcat's shirt. "Carol!"

"What?"

Milla pointed over to a spot a few feet from where they walked. "What's that?"

Carol followed Milla's finger, till her eyes caught glimpse of a small, red something sticking out of the ground.

"I dunno. It looks kinda like..."

The girls ran to the strange, glowing stone.

"Wow..." Milla whispered.

Buried halfway in the dirt was a clear, stunning red gem that almost seemed to be emitting it's own light.

"Oh. Em. Gee." Carol gasped. "Look at that thing!"

She hastily jumped down and began pushing away the dirt that encased the pristine crystal.

"I can help!" Milla jumped down and tried to help dig the gem up. In seconds, the crystal broke free of the ground, and proudly presented its splendor in the palms of Carol's hands.

"Ohhh, baby!" Carol exhaled. "This is... it's..."

"It's so pretty." Milla sighed.

"Pretty? Milla. This is more than 'pretty.' This baby is valuable. As in, a metric crap ton of cash."

"How can you tell?"

"Milla." Carol grinned. "Ya don't steal treasure from ancient temples for a living without learnin' a bit about valuable crystals."

Carol couldn't take her eyes off of the shimmering glow of the red crystal. "Oh man." She said. "Wait till Lilac gets a load of this!"

"But, won't she get mad if she finds out you left?"

"What?" Carol had to think for a second before she remembered where she was supposed to be. "Oh. Are you kidding? She's gonna forget her own name once she sees this!"

Milla still looked unsure. "Carol, I think you should leave it here."

Carol turned to Milla. "Have you gone bonkers? This thing could set us for life! We could get anything we wanted! We could get a new TV, those bike wheels I needed, a robot maid to clean the house!"

Carol was so ecstatic listing off possible treasures they could get, that she didn't notice how scared Milla looked.

"Carol, please. Leave it here. It... doesn't feel right."

"What? Whaddaya mean?"

Milla looked at the gem with a deep sense of unease. "I don't know. I just don't like it."

Carol shrugged. "Well, sorry girl, but I'm not lettin' go of this. This thing is gonna make us richer than you could imagine."

"But... but I..." Milla timidly put her hands behind her back and nodded. "Okay."

Carol slipped the gem into one of her pockets. "Hey, c'mon. What's the big deal?"

"I... I don't think it's safe."

"How could it not be safe?"

"I don't know."

"Well than calm down. Jeez Milla, you're acting like..."

A voice suddenly interrupted the girls' argument. "Greetings."

Carol and Milla both jumped in surprise. Carol spun around, trying to find the owner of the strange voice. "Wha'? Who?"

"Ahem."

Their eyes drew up to see a strange sight. Sitting in an open pod that silently hung in the air, was a large man, completely bald save for an extravagant mustache that extended far beyond his face. He wore a red, rubber jacket that was fastened with four large, gold buckles, and a pair of grey goggles that sat on top of his head.

"Greetings." The visitor repeated. "Unless I'm mistaking, we've never had the... pleasure of meeting, correct?"

"Uhh..." Carol wasn't sure what to say. So many thoughts were going through her head that she was having a hard time keeping track of them all.

Milla was the first to respond. "Yes. My name's Milla, and this is my friend Carol."

"May I ask what you're doing here?"

"Why do you care?" Carol inquired.

"Carol." Milla pulled the cat aside. "I think he can help us." She whispered. "Ask him if he can fix spaceships."

"Oh! Right!" Carol turned around to their visitor, who was drumming his fingers impatiently. "Hey, um... Mr. Mustache Man! Are you good at, like, fixing things?"

"Good?" He said. "Little cat, I am Dr. Eggman! The greatest scientific mind this world has ever seen!"

Carol snickered. _Eggman. With a name like that, you'd think he'd have a smaller ego._

"Okay then, Mr. EggGuy. See, uh, my pals and I were like, on this awesome spaceship thing, and it kinda got wrecked, and we need your help with it. Fixing it, y'know."

Eggman sighed. "And why should I help you? I'm a very busy man."

"Uh..."

Milla pulled on Carol's shirt. "Carol." She whispered in her ear. "Give him the diamond."

Carol spun around to face her."What?" She hissed. "No! I can't! Milla, I told you, this thing is gonna make us rich!"

"We can't get rich if we can't get home."

"But I... but we need it!"

"Carol, please."

"I..." Her face fell. "Fine."

She turned around to face the doctor again, who seemed to be growing more and more impatient.

"So, uh... EggGuy..."

"Eggman." He replied hotly.

"Yeah. Okay. So, uh, how do you feel 'bout this?" She reluctantly pulled out the red gem and presented it to Eggman.

His reaction wasn't what Carol was expecting. Upon seeing the red crystal, he quickly stood up in his silver pod and leaned forward with his hands on the side, as if he was trying to observe every detail of the gem in her hand.

"A Chaos Emerald!"

"What? Uh, hate to break it to you pal, but this is a ruby. It's... red."

Eggman smiled a large, toothy smile that almost seemed too large for his face. "You don't know."

"Know what?"

"Well, my dear," He said, ignoring her question. "You've convinced me! I will gladly help you fix your ship, in exchange for the Emerald."

"Ruby."

"Yes, yes. Whatever. Just give it to me!"

Carol stared at him. She didn't like the strange tone his voice had taken, or his large, mocking smile. "On second thought, why don't I just hold on to this 'till you're done?" She slipped the "emerald" into her pocket again.

Eggman's smile grew wider, a feat which Carol thought should have been impossible. "I have a better idea." He pressed a button inside his pod. Within seconds, a group of seven robotic soldiers fell out of the sky and crashed to the ground around the two girls. Each one of them, in a single uniform motion, stood up and trained their guns on the girls.

Milla cried out in surprise and ran behind her friend, while Carol's eyes darted around at the robots surrounding them. "Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?"

Eggman laughed as he floated above his prisoners. "Give me the Emerald, and I might let you live!"

"Carol." Milla whimpered. "Give it to him, please."

"Okay, fine!" Carol yelled. She pulled the gem out and threw it up to the doctor. "There! You happy?"

Eggman laughed as he held up the shining emerald in his fingers. "Four down." He purred to himself.

"Hey!" Carol yelled. "Bozo! Let us go!"

Eggman wouldn't take his eyes off of his prize, and instead motioned to his robots. "Dispose of them."

"No!" Milla yelled.

"You fat toilet slime!" Carol screamed.

Two of the robots stepped forward and prepared to fire, when Carol suddenly pounced forward. With one fluid motion, she kicked one of them to the ground, and clawed away at it's face.

"Milla! Run!" She yelled, as the remaining robots turned towards the wildcat.

Milla wasted no time. Though she wanted to stay and help, her fear overcame her and she dashed away into the trees.

Three of the robots turned around to pursue her, but Carol ran forward and jumped on the back of the one in the middle.

"You idiots!" Eggman yelled. "Destroy her!"

All of the robots raised their guns and fired, punching holes in their comrade and destroying him. Carol however, had jumped up and used the robot's head as a springboard, flying up into the air and landing on top of another robot.

This robot, in an attempt to shake her off, activated it's jump pack and flew up into the air.

"Whoa!" Carol yelled as she tried to cling onto the robot's head. She began kicking it's jetpack, trying to knock it off in order to get them both back to solid ground.

"E-017!" Eggman commanded. "Self-destruct sequence!"

 _Oh boy._ Seconds before the robot exploded into a blinding ball of fire, Carol leaped from it's head and went careening towards the ground.

However, before she hit the ground, she dug her claws into the side of Eggman's pod and held on desperately.

"Get off you vermin!" Eggman leaned over in his pod and tried to swat Carol away. However, when his hand drew close to her face, she reached up and bit it, her sharp teeth sinking into his flesh.

"AAARRGGHH!" The cry that the doctor let out was so loud that it almost startled Carol off of the pod. Eggman stumbled backwards, clutching his bleeding hand, and fell back onto his pod's controls. This caused the pod to lurch to the side, directly into the trunk of a tree.

Carol took this opportunity to jump onto the side of the tree, digging her claws into its bark. From there, she watched as Eggman's pod spun uncontrollably towards the ground.

The pod hit the ground with a crash, tilting on its side and throwing its creator out onto the dirt, as well as the red gemstone. Carol watched the glowing "emerald" roll out of the pod and rest next to the trunk of the tree she was on.

She leapt down and quickly snatched the gem up. She smiled as she held it up proudly.

"No one," She said smugly. "Steals from Carol the Wildcat!"

Her smile fell as she remembered Eggman's robots. She spun around, preparing to battle the rest, when she realized that the remaining robots weren't moving.

"No, no, no!" She turned to see Eggman dazedly crawl out of his wrecked pod. "You destroyed my command computer!"

Carol snickered. "Well then Mr. EggHead, I'm gonna go now. Nice meeting ya." She turned around and began casually walking away, tossing the gemstone up and down.

"You think you can walk away? I am Dr. Eggman! You are no match for me you... you green cow!"

"Moo!" She called back, and began to run deeper into the woods.

Eggman began stomping the ground like a child having a tantrum. "You haven't seen the last of me!" He bellowed.

He ran back to his wrecked pod. "Eggman here." He said into the radio that had barely survived the crash. "I need reinforcements! Send the Egg Goliath!"


	9. Chapter 9

The sound of Torque's footsteps clicking against the steel wall was the only thing that broke the smothering silence. And it was driving the Chaser insane.

Torque was never fond of combat, but this; a maze of pitch black corridors, a constant series of distant creaks, the unshakeable sensation that he was being watched by unseen things in the darkness. He felt as though he would almost rather be fighting Brevon's entire army with nothing but a stick.

He sighed and shook his head, trying to calm himself. After hooking his blaster to his belt, he pressed a button on the wrist of his injured arm and brought up the green, holographic map of the dreadnought that he had downloaded from a still-active console. He had to bend his head sideways, since the map outlined the ship as though it was still right-side-up. And it was giving his neck a painful ache.

"Okay..." He muttered to himself, in part just to break the silence. "I'm there." He pointed to a glowing dot on the outer edge of the map. "So, I've got to go along this way." He traced his finger along the path he would have to take to get back to the warp core.

He sighed. The route he would have to take led him through some halls that, in the dreadnought's current state, would have become bottomless pits.

"I'll figure that out when I get there."

He scanned the rest of the glowing map, wondering if he could find an easier route, when something caught his eye. He touched the map as though it were a solid screen, and it zoomed in to a more detailed layout of his current position. And just a little less than a kilometer below him, was a room marked "Medical Bay."

"Hmm." He ran a hand through his hair in thought. "I'd bet there's something there that could patch my arm up." _Is it worth it though?_

There wasn't much debate in his mind. A broken arm was a major inconvenience in more ways than one, and Carol's scarf wasn't remedying the problem. A small detour wouldn't waste too much time, especially if it ended up healing his arm.

"Alright then, a quick trip there and back." He closed the map, unlatched the blaster from his belt and began to follow the path to the Med-Bay.

As he walked through the dark halls, cluttered with debris from the crash, he began to whistle a simple tune. The sound echoed off of the walls and into the distant darkness.

 _I wonder how the girls are doing._ He chuckled. _I'd bet Milla's driving Carol a little crazy right now._ Torque knew that, although Carol did care for her young friend, they both had personalities that couldn't help but clash together.

 _Kind of like Pivot and Vector._ He thought with a smile, as memories of his old crew came to his mind. _Sometimes I thought they wanted to murder each other, but inside, I know they couldn't live without one another._

His thoughts shifted to Lilac. _I wonder if she's found some help yet. I wouldn't be surprised if she has: It seems like that girl can do just about anything she sets her mind to._

Torque smiled. _I'd bet she could be one heck of a Chaser if she wanted to._

An idea suddenly bloomed inside his head. _In fact, maybe she does want to become a Chaser. I wonder... if I asked, if she'd agree to go with me. Once all this is over._

 _No, I don't think she'd want to leave her home._

 _Well, then again, it's not like she could never visit. Besides, she would feel good helping people all across the sector._

 _Yeah, but she would have to leave the people she loves._

 _Well, Milla probably probably is too young to go with us. But Carol's a good fighter, I'd bet she could come too._

 _Although, I don't think she's exactly the best at following orders. She wouldn't do too well in a military setting._

 _Well, she is pretty young too. I bet in a few years she'll have learned a bit. Heck, maybe Milla could come as well by then. With those powers of her's, she could end up being a valuable crew member._

Torque smiled. _Crew member..._ An image of all four of them, clad in Chaser battle armor on the bridge of a war cruiser, came to his mind.

 _'Captain!' Lilac calls. 'Enemy starfighters are attacking!'_

 _'Battle stations!' Torque orders. 'Prepare for a fight!'_

 _'Sir!' Milla yells. 'They're teleporting onto the bridge!'_

 _'Let's kick their butts!' Carol cries._

Torque imagined as hordes of mutated monsters swarmed his imaginary cruiser. Lilac and Carol leaped into the middle of them, kicking, punching, clawing, and whipping, while Milla blocked a flurry of red shots with a glowing, jade shield. Torque imagined as he himself jumped into the air, blaster singing, mowing down dozens of the vicious monsters. One of them came charging toward him, with sharp claws ready to tear him apart. He dodged the creature's first attack, and responded with a mighty punch to its drooling, misshapen head, throwing the unfortunate creature into the wall.

 _'Keep fighting!' Torque calls. 'They'll never take the... the...'_

"Hmm." Torque mused. "What would be a good name for our ship?"

His mind raced through a list of names that his ship could be christened when he became a captain.

"The Stalwart." He muttered. "Maybe. The Vortex. Oh, maybe The Protector! The Nesasio. The Phoenix! No, that's taken..."

He was still running through every good ship name he could think of, when a series of sudden events interrupted his daydreaming.

Without warning, the hum of coursing power shot through the dark halls, bringing with it a blinding light that forced Torque to close his eyes with a cry. He felt his feet slip out from under him, and he found himself suddenly falling.

 _Am I dead?_

He hit the ground with a sharp thud. Dazedly, he got to his feet, blinking the bright spots from his vision and trying to understand what happened to him.

 _I'm on the wall._

His eyes adjusted to the bright light. "No... I'm on the floor."

Understanding dawned upon him as. "The power turned on. The lights, the artificial gravity..."

He brought up the holographic map once again. "Well then. That solves two problems: That crick in my neck, and traveling the ship without worrying about pits..."

However, this did also present another problem. The ship couldn't fix itself, which meant that something had to have fixed it. And Torque had a feeling he would be unlucky enough to meet this individual.

* * *

Carol sprinted through the dense wood, leaping over fallen logs and exposed boulders, desperately searching for her friend.

"Milla!?" She called. "C'mon girl, where are you!?"

She hadn't seen any sign of her since they were separated by that egg guy, and Carol was driven frantic with the thought that she could be hurt.

Carol looked over her shoulder, searching to see if Eggman or his robots were pursuing. She saw nothing.

She stopped running, put her hands on her knees and rested, panting furiously.

"Dang it... Milla..." She gasped. "Where are... you?"

She needed to find the hound and get out of the crater as soon as possible. She had a bad feeling that Eggman had a few more tricks up his sleeve.

After a quick break, she stood up straight and began running again.

"Milla!?" She called, the cry echoing through the trees.

Nothing responded. Carol was starting to get terrified at this point. She began to imagine Milla tripping down a hole and breaking her leg, or falling in the river and drowning. The thoughts weren't too rational, but Carol was too worried to care.

"Milla!" She called again desperately. "We need to go, come on! Where are you? Milla!?"

Her words were cut short when her foot caught an exposed tree root and with a cry she was thrown to the ground. She stayed there silently for a moment, flat on her face as though she were stunned.

Slowly, she crawled to her feet, reached up and touched her face. Feeling a sharp, stinging pain above her eye, she drew her hand back to see blood on her fingers.

For some reason, the sight brought tears to her eyes. She dropped her hand and looked helplessly around at the maze of trees entrapping her.

"Milla?" She said quietly. The tears grew thicker.

She stood there, quietly crying at her situation. She had no idea what to do. She was separated from her friend, lost in a massive forest, and likely being chased by a crazy scientist. She was feeling rather overwhelmed by it all.

With a sigh, she shook her head and wiped her eyes, careful not to touch the spot with the cut. "Calm down Carol; You're acting like a baby!"

She took a deep breath. _Okay. Let's think about this. I gotta find Milla before EggHead finds us. I don't know where she went, but she's probably looking for me too. So, I should stay here until she finds me._

She shook her head. _No, she could be doing the same thing. Besides, that'll make it easier for that bozo to find me too._

She sighed and put her hands in her pockets. She was surprised when her fingers closed around a hard object.

 _Oh man, I almost forgot._ She pulled out the glistening red crystal with a small smile, and took a second to look at it.

She could still barely believe her luck at finding such a treasure. Back in the temples on Avalice, every crystal of this value had either already been stolen centuries before, or were far too deep and protected to get to. She and Lilac always had to be satisfied stealing the lesser gems just lying around.

But this... Carol was serious when she said it could set them for life. This was a jewel fit for a king.

She gently touched the side of the gem, still enthralled by it's shimmering beauty. _Frankly, I don't blame that EggGuy for wanting this. Nobody could turn this baby down._

She scoffed. "Of course, I wouldn't try to murder a bunch of kids for it. That guy's a maniac."

She slipped it back in her pocket with her nerves calmed a bit. "Alright, I just gotta find Milla, and we can get outta here!"

She was looking around, trying to decide which direction to head, when she suddenly noticed a strange, distant sound echoing through the trees.

 _Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud._

"Huh?" Her eyes and ears searched around, trying to find the source of the noise.

 _Thud. Thud._

It was getting louder. Closer. Carol's heart began to race. What is that? She thought. Whatever it was, it sounded big. She wasn't sure whether to run and hide, or stay and fight.

 _Thud. Thud. Thud. SNAP!_

She jumped and spun around, just in time to see what was once the trunk of a tree blast apart into splinters of broken wood. Her eyes darted up to see the top half of the tree come careening down directly towards her.

"Eek!" She spun around and dove away, narrowly dodging the falling trunk just as it crashed to the ground with a deafening crack. Dazed, she got to her feet and turned to see what was attacking her.

Towering above her at more than 10 feet tall, was a massive, mechanical robot. Standing on two legs that ended in huge, rectangular feet, the giant had two massive arms, but no hands. Instead, one arm ended with a circle of rotating gun barrels, and the other ended in a colossal, steel ball that was even bigger than Carol.

The machine was also missing a head. Instead, sitting on top of it's broad shoulders were two large, flashing yellow lights. Placed directly on its chest was its method of sight: A single, red optical sensor that jutted out a foot in front of its body.

The robot stood behind the jagged stump of the tree it had eviscerated, scanning the area ahead of itself with its red eye.

It locked onto Carol's stunned form, and began to lumber it's way towards her. Slowly, it raised its massive wrecking ball and prepared to crush her body into the dirt.

In a flash, Carol was on her feet, sprinting as fast as she could away from the mechanical giant. The ball struck the spot that she was on mere seconds before, throwing up a torrent of dust and leaving a sizable crater in the earth.

Carol was thrown off her feet again by the earth-shaking impact. Swiftly, she leapt up and spun around to see the monster pry it's destructive weapon out of the ground. It again locked it's sights on it's tiny opponent and made for her, preparing for a second attack.

Carol studied the giant with an analytical eye, trying to find a weakness. It had very slow, stiff movements, however, its size more than made up for this. _Maybe those lights are important. Just gotta get on top of it._

"Come and get me!" She taunted, working up a plan.

The machine raised its arm, preparing once again to flatten the young wildcat. This time however, as the ball came smashing into the ground, Carol rolled back to avoid the attack, then leapt up on top of the giant's weapon as it was buried in the earth.

She ran up the arm of the giant and leaped onto its shoulder, climbing on top of its body as it pried its mace from the earth again.

The robot began swinging its arms, trying to swat Carol off, but its joints weren't flexible enough to reach her. Carol meanwhile was holding on to the machine, trying to make her way to the flashing lights on top of its body as she dodged the swinging arms.

She crawled forward, stood up, and prepared to smash the first light with a solid kick, when a sudden crackling filled the air. Without warning, the hull of the robot flashed alive with coursing lightning, painfully electrocuting the poor wildcat. Carol could do nothing as she was thrown from the body of the machine, fur singed from the shock.

She lay on the ground, twitching furiously, mind hazy from the vicious attack, as the giant stomped toward her. Slowly, it raised its assault gun and spun it up, prepared to end her life in a flurry of bullets.

Carol could do nothing. She saw the gun, saw the danger she was in, but couldn't do anything about it. Her muscles refused to respond.

 _I'm gonna die._

Maybe it was because of the shock, but she didn't feel any fear. It was more of a... disappointment. In herself? Maybe, but despite her situation, she didn't feel like she thought she should. She simply closed her eyes, waiting for the sound of gunfire.

It didn't come.

She opened her eyes. The robot still had its gun trained on her, but it was no longer spinning it. It was simply watching her, making sure she didn't have a chance to escape.

Carol tried to move. Slowly, she regained control of her muscles and crawled to her knees. "Why..." She mumbled groggily.

Her ears were suddenly filled with a maniacal laugh. "Oh hohohoho! You seem to have underestimated me, haven't you?"

Carol sluggishly looked up, with her head still swimming, to see Dr. Eggman, sitting in a flying pod that looked identical to his last. He was hovering above his giant robot, looking at Carol with a triumphant smile.

"You..." Upon trying to talk, her vision ran red and she suddenly felt very sick. She closed her eyes and bent over, moaning.

"Not to worry. Goliath can deliver a painful shock, but it's only meant to stun. There should be no lasting damage."

Carol coughed, trying to force her eyes to focus. Eventually, she managed to shakily climb to her feet.

"What do you want?" She muttered hoarsely.

Eggman laughed. "Shouldn't that be obvious?"

Carol put her hand in her pocket and pulled out the crystal.

"Yes." He said. "The Chaos Emerald."

Carol was tempted to correct him, but she was too angry to make jokes. "Why do you want it so much?" She demanded.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that my dear. All you need to worry about is Goliath here." He gestured towards his metal giant, whose gun still trained on the wildcat.

"However," he said. "I think we could come to an agreement. I can be a compromising man when I want to be."

"Yeah, sure."

"Don't test me." He growled. "I'm giving you a chance to walk away and forget all of this. All I need in return is the Emerald."

"Ha! Fat chance! You tricked me once you bozo! What makes you think I'll trust you this time?"

Eggman smiled. "Oh, I don't need trust. Because if you don't do what I say, then you'll see what I can really do."

Carol scoffed. "You mean hide behind your robots, eating a bag of popcorn and watching as they murder a bunch of kids? Really impressive."

He growled. "Do not mock me! Or else I'll be forced to take back my generous offer."

"Yeah, 'generous'. Tell you what? Why don't you take that offer of yours and choke on it, you cowardly slug!"

Eggman clenched his teeth and smashed his fist into his pod's console. "Cowardly!? Fine! If you want to play this game, then I'll gladly oblige! Egg Goliath! Open your merging clamp! Transfer control to me!"

With a hiss of smoke and a mechanical whir, a hatch on top of the Goliath opened to a rounded hole, into which Eggman's pod attached itself to. Fixed securely in the metal giant, the doctor had become the head of his massive creation.

"Now then." He purred, wrapping his hands around his controls. "Let's have some fun."

Carol couldn't help but smile. "This should be good."


	10. Chapter 10

Deep in the halls of the wrecked dreadnought, a single Shade Trooper patrolled its route as it always had. Suspended in the life-supporting sludge, the eye of the tiny creature inside the intimidating robotic suit darted back and forth, searching for any sign of an intruder.

This Trooper had survived the impact practically unscathed, which is more than can be said for the majority of its brethren. Whether it was the crash, or the intruders who had caused the crash, far too many of its fellow Troopers had been damaged or destroyed.

However, this did not faze the solitary Trooper. Shades were not created to be emotional, or sorrowful. They were designed to follow orders, and perform whatever duties Lord Brevon required. They were not stupid; in some ways, they possessed more intelligence than a computer. However, they lacked any sense of rationale, or even self-awareness. Because of this, they were the perfect fist of Brevon's sadistic warmongering.

The Trooper turned a corner, walking the hall that would pass Medical Bay-6. No orders had come since the crash. The Trooper wasn't worried about this, it couldn't be worried about it. All it could do was patrol the empty halls, searching for anyone that dared to cross Brevon's path.

 _Clank._

The sudden sound reverberated through the halls behind the patrolling Trooper. Piquing its inquisitive nature, it turned around to investigate the noise.

It walked up to see a small, metal pipe sitting where it had landed. The Shade stared at the pipe, trying to understand how it had ended up there.

Suddenly, a voice sounded in the Shade's audio receptors. "How's it going?"

The Shade spun around, raising its rifle, prepared to destroy the unauthorized visitor. It was too late however, and the last thing it saw was a red flash.

* * *

Torque spun his blaster around in triumph as he watched the Shade Trooper slump to the ground, a hole in the glass that contained the mutant. As it hit the ground, the green slime that supported the creature inside flowed out and pooled around its inoperable body.

"Sorry buddy." Torque said. "But I'm gonna need this."

He got down to his knees and, with a bit of effort, pulled the robotic shell around to its back. Through the glass, he could see the small, black Shade fluttering around the half-drained chamber.

"Now, how do I get you out?" He muttered.

He searched around the Trooper's body, looking for a way to open the chamber. He opened a panel on the suit's "chest" and pulled a couple of wires. With a hiss, the front of the Trooper opened up, giving the Shade inside a chance to flutter out. It circled around Torque twice, keeping its eye trained on the Chaser, before it flew away.

Torque didn't give it any thought. He had seen dozens of Shades, scattered all throughout the halls. One more flying around wouldn't raise an alarm.

He was more preoccupied with the suit itself. He analyzed the inside of the empty shell, trying to figure out how to operate it.

"Alright." He muttered. "Looks like I can..."

He leaned into the suit, opening another panel in the back. From there, he began to do what he did best.

The work was hard and painstakingly frustrating, since he only had one arm to work with. However, he managed to push through, and within minutes, he was looking proudly at his new robotic buddy.

"Alright, let's test you out. Raise your hand."

The empty shell followed his command, raising its left arm above its head.

"Put it down." It did nothing. "Um, put your arm down?" It did.

Torque grinned broadly. "Turn around."

Again, the machine followed his order, putting its back to the Chaser.

Torque felt awfully proud of this. He was aware that his new robot wouldn't be able to perform any complicated tasks, since all of a Trooper's intelligence came from the Shade within. Even still, it would be extremely useful to have some help carrying the Kingdom Stone, and keeping Serpentine under control. All he would have to do is give it commands. Extremely specific commands.

"Alright, face me." The robot followed suit. "Okay then robot. Uh, hmm. Does that sounds weird? Yeah, it kinda does. I think you need a name."

The suit didn't respond.

"Alright, how about..." Torque racked his brain. "Um... B. Barley. Bar... buh... Bus... Buster. Buster! Yeah, I'll call you Buster."

Buster didn't respond.

"Okay then. Buster, I need you to follow me, I've got a job for you to do."

Torque turned around and began to walk away slowly, keeping his eye trained on Buster to see if he would follow. Sure enough, the machine faithfully began following Torque's movement, staying just a step behind him.

 _Alright, this should work out,_ he thought happily. _Just gotta keep him out of any fights._

He pulled up his map once again. The Med-Bay was just a short walk ahead.

 _I probably need to hurry up a bit,_ he thought. _I've been here longer than I should._

He vaguely wondered how late it was. If night was drawing near, then he felt as though he'd have to leave as soon as possible. He had a feeling that if he wasn't back by nightfall, Lilac would come looking for him.

 _I just have to find the Kingdom Stone first. I can't go back to them empty handed._ He smiled. _I can't wait to see their faces when I come casually strolling in with the Stone in my hands._

Torque glanced behind him to see if the creature's shell was still following him, when he noticed something. There was a small, flashing red light on Buster's arm, accompanied with the sound of a subtle beeping, that hadn't been there before. Torque stopped walking and turned around around to take a look at the robot. _What seems to be the problem this time?_

Torque took hold of Buster's arm and raised it up so he could observe the light. He took a look at it, and within a moment, was overcome with a deep feeling of unease.

"Maybe it wasn't the best idea to bring you along." He muttered.

He looked around, trying to decide whether to leave Buster behind, when the blaring of an alarm scared him out of his skin. He jumped in shock and spun around to see a trio of red, double-barreled security turrets emerge from the ceiling. The turrets turned around to face him, and after spinning up, let loose a barrage of lasers towards the Chaser.

With a cry, Torque pushed Buster to the ground and dashed away, instinctively putting his arm up to protect his head. He leapt behind a large steel crate, moments before the lasers could hit their mark.

"Buster!" He cried, as the shots pounded against his cover. "Take those turrets out!"

Buster didn't respond.

"What... Oh come on! Use your gun and shoot those turrets!"

Immediately, the empty shell leapt to its feet, raised its rifle, and fired at the guns; the powerful weapon punching holes in the armor of the security turrets.

One by one the three turrets exploded into shards, leaving Buster to stand triumphantly in their wreckage.

"Oh yeah!" Torque cried. "Nice work buddy!" He stepped out from behind the crate and jogged over to the suit.

"Alright..." He muttered. "Let's see if you were the one who triggered the security."

He opened a panel on Buster's arm, to reveal a small, cylindrical device attached to the circuitry.

Torque couldn't help but feel stupid. The device was a beacon, designed to send out an alert if it detected any tamperings with the suit. Torque should have checked for such a device before reprogramming Buster.

"Too late now." He said with a sigh. He grabbed onto the beacon, and with a swift tug, ripped it out of Buster's arm. "Let's just hope nothing else heard it."

He slipped the beacon into his belt. It might come in handy later.

"Alright, let's get going. Buster, start following me."

The suit responded to his command, and the two began to once again make their way to the Med-Bay.

* * *

"Gah!" Dr. Eggman bellowed. "Stop moving!"

Carol laughed out loud as she dodged another of the Goliath's earthshaking attacks.

"You vermin! Take this!" Eggman raised the giant's gun and spun it up. Before he could fill her with bullets however, Carol sprinted towards him and dove onto the ground, sliding under Goliath's legs. She leapt back up to her feet, spun around, and slashed the back of its leg with a vicious Wild Claw.

"Gah!" Eggman cried, as his machine fell to one knee.

Carol laughed. "C'mon EggHead! Can't ya handle one little cat?"

"Silence!" Faster than Carol expected, the Goliath was back on its feet and spinning around for another attack. It raised its wrecking ball and swung it down towards her.

Carol dodged the massive weapon and pounced up onto the ball as it was stuck in the ground. She clung to the ball as it was lifted back into the air.

"Get off!" The doctor yelled. He swung the giant's arm back and forth, trying to fling Carol off. As it was swinging however, it struck the side of a tree and smashed it into splinters.

Carol leapt off of the weapon and rolled as she hit the ground. She spun around and watched as the trunk of the tree swayed back and forth for a second, before it toppled over towards the metal giant.

"No!" Eggman raised the giant's arms, trying to stop the tree from crushing him and his machine. He managed to catch the trunk and throw it to the ground with a crash, however, Carol took this opportunity and leapt in for another attack.

"Haiya!" She cried as she let loose a flurry of savage kicks onto the back of the giant.

"Gah!" Eggman bellowed, as the force of Carol's lighting quick kicks pushed the Goliath forward, almost making it fall over.

"C'mon you lightweight!" Carol taunted."Gimme your best shot!"

Slowly the Goliath stomped around to face her and raised its gatling gun. However, he didn't even get a chance to spin it up, as Carol had leapt through its legs again and slashed the other leg with an equally powerful Wild Claw.

"No no no!" Eggman cried as his giant fell to its knees, both legs severely damaged. The good doctor could do nothing to fight back; His opponent was far too quick and agile.

"Ready to give up?" Carol laughed.

"Never!" Vainly, he tried to force the Goliath to stand, but its damaged legs only stuttered in response.

Desperately, he tried one more time to crush the wildcat with the massive ball, but she dodged far out of its reach. Instead, the weight of the ball caused the Goliath to topple over onto its face.

Carol watched smugly as the doctor tried to get his machine back to its feet. "How 'bout now?"

"Grrr." Eggman growled. "You think I'm beaten!? Your feeble mind can't comprehend what I'm capable of! Get a load of this!"

Raising a fist in the air, he smashed it down onto a big, red button. With a hiss and a puff of steam, the torso of the giant suddenly detached from the now useless legs. With a roar, the torso rose into the air, suspended by three massive jets that had been hidden in the waist.

But it wasn't done there. With a deafening crash, the steel ball detached itself from the arm of the giant and smashed into the ground, connected by a long chain extending from Goliath's wrist.

"Mwahahaha!" Eggman laughed, rising from his seat. "Behold! The mighty second form of the Egg Goliath! Watch, as this undefeatable masterpiece of science crushes its enemies into the dust, with the power of a true mythological giant. Now, you will feel the genius that..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Carol interrupted, tapping her foot impatiently. "I get it; You're totally fulla yourself. Can I get back to kicking the snot outta you?"

"I... I... but the..." The doctor growled. "You irritating little..."

He pulled back on his controls, making Goliath fly up high into the air, the massive flail swinging dangerously back and forth on its thick chain.

"Take this!" He cried and began swinging the massive ball up and above the giant's head. Spinning around faster and faster, the ball built momentum until Eggman pushed down hard on his controls, making Goliath swing the ball down with the force of a small meteorite.

The weapon exploded into the ground, throwing up a torrent of dust and grass. Carol, despite having dodged the blow itself, was thrown away into the air by the sheer force of the shockwave.

She crashed into the ground hard with a cry of pain. Slightly dazed, she jumped to her feet to watch the Goliath fly high into the air again, spinning its ball for another attack.

 _'Kay, this might be bad._

"Take this!" Eggman repeated and mimicked the last attack, swinging the ball down towards Carol. She managed to leap to the side again, avoiding the earthshaking blast, but she was unable to do anything as the force of the impact threw her into the air again.

This time, she collided into the side of a tree with a sharp crack. With shrill cry of pain, she fell limply to the ground, her whole body agonized from the impact.

Laying helpless on the ground, her vision running red from the pain, she desperately tried to get back to her feet to defend herself, but stumbled and fell back onto her face.

"Mwahahahaha!" Eggman gloated as he hovered above his victim. "This is the end of you, you vermin!"

He swung the ball around again, preparing for the final stroke that would finish the battle.

"No!" Carol tried again to get to her feet, but it was too late; She watched as the massive flail barreled towards her with the force of a truck. Desperately, she raised her arms and covered her face in a vain attempt to protect herself, but knew in the back of her mind how helpless she was.

 _SNAP!_

The ring of breaking metal echoed through the forest, followed by a colossal crash as the steel ball smashed into the ground, several feet behind Carol.

"What?" Carol uncovered her face and looked behind her, and sure enough, the massive ball was resting in the crater where it landed. The chain that had connected it to the Goliath had been severed in two.

 _Who..._ She turned her head to see what had saved her from a grisly fate.

Standing unflinchingly under the shadow of the hovering giant was a small, red creature that was not much taller than she was. Carol could only see the back of its head, but she saw that it had long, flowing tendrils that were very similar to Lilac's.

 _Is that a dragon?_ She thought.

Eggman seemed to be as equally surprised. "You!" He exclaimed.

"Yeah." Came a gruff voice from the creature's lips. "Me."

"How dare you interrupt my work! What do you think you're doing here?"

"I think you can guess."

Eggman smiled. "Of course. After all, your narrow mind only has room for a single purpose."

"Shut it. I know you have the Master Emerald. I want it back."

Eggman laughed a deep throaty laugh. "Oh ho ho ho! I'm afraid you're mistaken my dear Knuckles, I have no use for your precious Emerald. However..." He said with a wicked smile. "I would gladly help you find it again, if you help me dispose of this meddlesome thief." He pointed to Carol, who was still laying dumbly on the ground, watching the exchange with confusion on her face.

"You think I'm going to fall for that again!?" Knuckles roared. "You're nothing but a slug Eggman! I'll never help you again!"

Eggman growled. "Very well. Then I have no use for you. Take this!"

He raised Goliath's gatling gun and aimed it at his new opponent.

"Look out!" Carol cried.

But before Eggman could open fire, Knuckles suddenly dashed under the Goliath and jumped up onto a tree directly behind the robot. Carol watched as he hit the tree, and like a began to climb straight up its trunk with the speed of a cheetah.

Eggman turned around began to fire his weapon, the bullets sparking and impacting mere inches below Knuckles as he flew up the side of the trunk.

 _Holy cow,_ Carol thought. _Even I can't climb that fast._

As Knuckles reached the same level as Eggman and his flying machine, he spun around and leaped off the trunk like a cannonball, the scattered shots flying around him like hail.

"Rrrrahhh!" With a roar, Knuckles drew back a fist and threw a punch at the Goliath's chest. The fist connected, and Carol heard the unmistakable crunch of cracking steel.

The Goliath was thrown backwards by the devastating punch, losing control and crashing into the ground.

"Wow..." Carol gasped.

But Knuckles wasn't done there. He landed on the ground, stood up straight, and sprinted to the fallen mecha in a flash.

The now despondent Eggman watched his approach with terror. "Wait! Knuckles, my friend! We can talk about this!"

Without a word, Knuckles took hold of the chain that had been attached to the wrecking ball, and with a grunt of effort, began to swing the entire Goliath up into the air.

"Woooaahh!" Eggman exclaimed, as Knuckles began to swing the massive robot around like a giant tether ball. Faster and faster, Knuckles swung the mech in a circle until, with a yell, he let go and watched as the mech, and the scientist within, sailed dozens of feet into the air and disappeared into the distance.

After watching the shooting star for a moment, Knuckles then turned around to check on the newcomer that he had rescued.

"You alright?" He said to a flabbergasted Carol.

"Uh... I..." Carol sat with her jaw slack, looking at her savior with an almost glassy look. "Well, I... Yeah... Buh..."

"Who are you?"

"I..." Carol got to her feet, keeping her eyes trained on Knuckles, observing him from head to toe

"Hello?" He said upon not getting a response. "Can you talk?"

"Uh..." _What am I doing? Why can't I speak?_ "I uh... well, yeah, I guess I can. Um, thanks for that... you know... doing that thing... um." Embarrassed, she thrust her hands into her pockets and dropped her eyes to the ground.

"Who are you?" He repeated, crossing his arms.

"C... Carol Tea." She stuttered, still not looking him in the eye.

"Are you alright?" He asked, noticing her strange behavior.

"Oh... yeah! Peachy! I mean... totally alright! You know?"

Knuckles raised his eyebrow. "Did you get hit on the head? Or are you always like this?"

"Like... like what? Oh no, I'm pretty cool. I mean... I try to be cool... I mean, kinda chill if you know what I'm talking about... I try to be chill I mean... You know..."

She began absentmindedly pawing the dirt with the toe of her shoe, still avoiding Knuckles' eyes.

"Yeah... sure. Can you tell me why Eggman was attacking you?"

"Oh, um, well I was just... you know, walking around, minding my own business, when I found this awesome gemstone!" Upon finishing the sentence, Carol immediately wished she hadn't said anything.

"Gemstone?" Knuckles asked, suddenly interested. "What kind?"

"Oh, nothing. I... I mean... well... I guess... Do you wanna see it?"

Half enthusiastically, half reluctantly, she pulled out the crystal and proudly presented it to Knuckles. Like Eggman's, his reaction was not what she was expecting: His eyes suddenly bulged out, and he leaned forward as if he wanted to swipe it from her hands.

"It is! A Chaos Emerald!"

"I... for crying out loud! Can't people see it's a ruby? It's red, genius!"

Knuckles sighed. "It doesn't have to be green to be an emerald."

"Oh yeah? Well I think I know a bit more about gems than you."

"I doubt that." Knuckles looked around as though searching to see if they were alone. "Listen, I need you to give me the Emerald. I need it for something."

He reached out to grab it from her hand, but Carol jumped backwards. "No way buster! I found it first, and fought a buncha killer robots for it! It's mine!"

Knuckles growled. "Do you even know what it is?"

"Yeah. It's valuable. And that means it's mine."

Knuckles balled his fists. "Listen cat. I need that Emerald to get my life back. And I'm not going to let you keep it from me. So hand it over, or else."

"Fat chance."

"Fine." Knuckles raised his fist and threw it towards Carol's face, but she sidestepped the attack and responded with a swift jump kick to the back of his head.

Knuckles was thrown forwards onto the ground, surprised by Carol's agile attack. But he was back to his feet in seconds and raising his fists for another assault.

"Come at me!" Carol taunted, waving the gem mockingly back and forth.

"Ssshhaa!" Knuckles jumped forward and threw punch after punch at the wildcat, but was unable to land a hit, as Carol deftly sidestepped and countered every blow.

"Come on!" Knuckles roared, frustrated at his opponent's agility.

Carol merely giggled. She could tell that Knuckles was strong, but he wasn't using any plans, or strategies. He was only throwing attack after attack, hoping to simply overwhelm her.

"Rhaa!" He tried once again to knock her out, but she twisted around and kicked his feet out from under him.

He fell to his back with a grunt, and before he could get back up, Carol pressed down on his chest with her foot, holding him down.

"You done big guy?" She said with a coy grin.

Knuckles growled, and without warning, suddenly grabbed her ankle.

"Whoa!" Carol cried as Knuckles pushed her off and, still holding her leg, flipped her upsidedown. Dangling by her ankle, she tried to struggle out, but Knuckles kept her at arm's length.

"Now..." He growled. "I'm gonna give you one more chance. The Emerald... Now."

"Hey, uh... Can't we talk about this? I mean, you seem really cool and... uh..."

"Five."

"Huh?"

"Four."

"Oh. Hey c'mon buddy, can't we..."

"Three."

Carol began to struggle again, trying to worm her way out of his grip.

"Two."

"Alright! Fine!"

He held out his other hand. "Hand it over."

Carol reluctantly pulled the Emerald out, and handed it to Knuckles. "Happy?"

Knuckles smiled and nodded. "I knew we could work something out."

He dropped her roughly to the ground. "Now then... I'm going to give you five seconds to get out of here."

"Oh come on!" Carol exclaimed.

"Five."

Before he could get to 'four' a sudden noise behind him interrupted his counting.

"What?" Knuckles turned around, just in time to see a glowing, green block, bigger than his head, come barreling at his face.

The block struck him, and with a 'pop' and a flash of green, he was sprawled unconscious on the ground.

"Wha'?" Carol looked past him to see Milla, with a look of determination on her face that Carol had never seen before.

"Take that." She said, glaring at Knuckles.

"Mil'!" Carol jumped to her feet and sprinted to her friend. She was so excited to see her that she jumped forward and gave the hound a hug.

"Oh!" Milla giggled. "Hi Carol."

Carol let go of her. "Where've you been? I've been looking for you everywhere!"

"I... um, I was in the forest. I was trying to find you too, when I heard a lot of big explosions. I tried to follow them, and pretty soon I caught your scent."

Carol grinned. "It's awesome that you're alright. I was worried about you!"

"Uh." Milla glanced past Carol at the devastation around them. "What happened?"

"That crazy egg guy caught up with me. He had this giant robot thing, and he tried to smash me with it."

"Oh. Did you beat it?"

Carol grinned. "Look who you're talkin' to. Course I did!"

"And, who's that?" She asked, looking at Knuckles' unconscious body.

"I dunno. Some guy. He helped me beat EggSnob, but then he tried to steal my... Oh!"

Remembering the Emerald, she spun around and jogged to his body. Bending down and seeing the gem still in Knuckles' clenched fist, she pried it out and held it triumphantly in the air.

"Score 3 for the Wildcat! Aw yeah!"

Still grinning, she looked down at Knuckles' face, and suddenly felt a strange feeling tugging at her chest.

 _See you soon big guy,_ she thought.

She spun around again. "C'mon." She said to Milla. "We've been here way too long. Let's head back."

"Okay!" The two girls spun around and began to sprint through the trees again.


	11. Chapter 11

"Knuckles? Knuckles!? Where are you?"

Amy Rose walked through the forest at the bottom of the crater, searching for the red echidna. The two had seen Dr. Eggman flying around above the treeline, and Knuckles had set out to investigate. That was almost an hour ago.

She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Knuuuckllllles!?"

No response.

"Hmph. That jerk! Running off to fight Eggman and leaving me behind, all alone, even after I offered to help him find his Emerald. Why can't I fight too? I can do whatever he can! But noooo. The boys always have to be the heroes. Hmph!" She kicked the dirt in frustration.

Silently pouting, she stood with her arms crossed and her brow downturned, cursing the unfairness of it all. However, in the back of her mind, she still had some vague worries for her friend. Knuckles was strong, and a very good fighter, but he could be a little hard-headed at times. Amy half wondered if Eggman might have actually gotten the upper hand.

She sighed, silently wondering what to do, when suddenly, without warning, something crashed into her from behind.

"Ahh!" She cried as she was thrown forward onto the ground. She caught herself with her hands, and with anger boiling in her chest, she turned her head to see who had run into her.

Laying flat on her back with surprise in her eyes was a green cat, staring at Amy as though she were an alien.

"Hey!" Amy yelled. "Watch where you're going! Don't you have any..."

Before they could find out what she had, Amy suddenly felt hands trying to pull her back to her feet.

"We're really sorry." Said a soft, timid voice. "We didn't see you."

Amy turned to see what, at first glance, looked like a young rabbit. However, upon seeing her feet, tail, and nose, Amy saw that she was some kind of dog.

"Oh." Amy said, her face softened. "It's alright. I didn't see you either."

"Jeez." Said the cat, getting on her feet as well. "A couple of hours ago it seemed like we were the only people on the planet. Now we can't go ten feet without running into some weirdo."

"Excuse me?" Amy demanded. "I'm no weirdo! You're the one crashing into people who're just minding their own business!"

The cat grinned mischievously. "You're the one just standing around waiting for someone to crash into you."

"What? That doesn't make any..."

"Stop!" The dog yelled. "We're really sorry. We're trying to get back to our spaceship before our friends do."

"Spaceship?" Amy asked. "You two don't seem like the spaceship type."

"Well, it's our friend's ship. He's an alien."

"Milla..." The cat whispered. "Don't..."

"Alien?" Amy laughed. "Really?"

"Yeah! And I guess we're also kinda..."

"Anyway!" The cat interrupted loudly. "Sorry for running into you, but we really need to head out."

"Hold on for a minute!" Amy said. "What're your names?"

"I'm Milla!"

"Carol the Wildcat."

"I'm Amy. It's nice to meet you."

"Same." Carol shrugged.

"I'm looking for someone around here. Would either of you have happened to see a red echidna?"

Both Milla and Carol looked at her with blank expressions. "What in the world is an 'echidna'?" Carol asked.

"Well, um. I don't know exactly. But my friend is tall, he's got long dreadlocks, and he's kind of got a pointed face. He also has really big hands, with spikes on his fists."

"Oh!" Carol said, then chuckled sheepishly. "Yeah, we kinda... met him."

"Really? Where? Which way?"

"He's... taking a nap somewhere over there." Carol pointed.

"Nap?"

"Um. Is he your friend?" Milla asked.

"Yeah. I'm helping him find something of his, and in return, he's helping me find someone."

Carol crossed her arms. "Well, that's nice, but we've really gotta split. C'mon Mil'."

But Milla didn't budge. "Who are you looking for?" She asked Amy.

"Oh..." She said, clasping her hands together. "He's the dreamiest guy in the universe. He doesn't know it yet, but we're meant to be together. It's true love."

Carol made a face, sticking her tongue out in disgust, but Milla sighed happily. "That's so sweet."

"Yeah." Amy sighed. "But it's been such a long time since I've seen him. I have no idea where he could be, or what he's even doing."

"Oh... Well, we can help you look for him!"

"Woah, woah, woah!" Carol interrupted, pushing Milla back. "Nuh uh, no way. Listen, we're sorry that you're having trouble with... all that. But we really, _really_ need to go. C'mon."

Carol began trying to push Milla away from Amy, despite some resistance from the hound.

"Well, hold on." Amy said, blocking their path. "What's the rush?"

"If we don't get back to our ship soon," Carol said, "We're gonna have an angry dragon who's gonna wanna skin us alive. Specifically me."

"Huh? Dragon? What're you talking..."

"HEY!"

The sudden roar echoed through the trees, making all three girls jump in surprise. They spun around to see Knuckles, panting heavily with a look of fury in his eyes.

"Oh nuts..." Carol muttered.

"Knuckles!" Amy cried happily. "Where've you been? I've been looking for you everywhere!"

She ran to the angry echidna, but he payed her no attention. His eyes were instead locked on Carol.

"Get out of the way Amy!" He yelled and pushed the pink hedgehog to the ground.

"Hey!" She cried. "What do you think..."

Before she could finish, Knuckles dashed straight towards Carol, who stumbled backwards in fear.

"Wait! Knuckles, stop!" Amy cried.

"Rhaa!" He let out a battle cry and leaped into the air, drawing a fist back and aiming for Carol's head. The wildcat bent down and raised her arms in a fighting stance, prepared to parry Knuckles's strike. Before she could, however, Milla jumped forward and pushed her aside to the ground, taking her place. Quickly raising a green, psychic shield, she prepared to defend herself from the blow.

"Milla, don't!" Carol cried, trying to save the hound.

But Knuckles' fist connected with the shield, and with a _crack_ and a green flash, the shield shattered as though it were made of glass. The shards exploded outwards, and then dissolved into nothingness like ghosts.

Milla, though the shield took the brunt of the force, was still violently thrown backwards by the power of the punch and landed hard on the ground.

"No!" Carol, in anger, jumped up and leapt towards Knuckles, who was slightly disoriented by the force of the shattering barrier. He was too slow to defend himself as Carol extended her claws and viciously scratched him across his stomach.

"Oof." He grunted, and stumbled backwards, clutching his stomach. He tried to recover for another attack, but Carol dove forward, bending down and tackling him.

Laying on the ground with the wildcat sitting on his chest, he was too stunned to fight back as Carol began punching him across the face.

"You!" Carol yelled, accenting each word with a punch. "Don't! Hurt! My! S..."

Suddenly, as she was yelling, Knuckles quickly grabbed one of her wrists and, with the other fist, delivered a powerful punch into the wildcat's face.

Carol cried out in pain as she was thrown backwards. Clutching her face, she could feel wet blood flow between her fingers and drip to the ground. She knew her nose was broken.

Agonized by the pain, with tears brimming in her eyes, she could barely see the blurry form of Knuckles walking menacingly towards her, fists clenched tight.

Working through the pain, she tried to crawl to her feet, still clutching her bloody nose, when a dark shadow suddenly rose up behind her foe.

With a _crack_ and an "Ow!" Knuckles was on his knees, clutching the top of his head, with Amy standing angrily above him wielding a comically massive hammer.

"Agh! Amy! What are..."

Before he could finish, Amy swung the hammer once again, bashing the poor echidna upside the head.

"You knuckle-headed, boil-brained, dung-faced, maniac! What in the world do you think you're doing!?"

"Amy, no! You don't understand! That cat has..."

Amy raised her hammer again, making Knuckles scurry backwards in fear. "I don't care what _Carol_ has, it doesn't give you the right to go around, beating up girls!"

Carol, despite how much her nose hurt, couldn't help but snicker, seeing how scared Knuckles looked at Amy's fury.

"Carol!"

Carol turned her head to see Milla, back on her feet, dash over to her side with a look of terror on her face.

"Oh no. Oh, Carol, are you okay? Carol please..." She was horrified at the amount of blood that was drenching the wildcat's face.

Carol tried to calm her terrified friend. "Mibba, ibts fibe, I..." She groaned, trying to wipe her face clear.

"Oh no. Oh no no no. Please, Carol... I'm sorry, I tried to save you... I... I can... maybe I can..." The poor hound was panicking at this point, tears flowing down her cheeks, legitimately worried that Carol was going to die.

"Mibba! I... ugh!" Carol got shakily to her feet, covering her nose with one hand. "Mi...lla." She said, speaking slowly and clearly. "I'b... vine. I'be had... a broben nobe... bevore."

Milla couldn't understand her friend's slurred words. "It's okay, it's okay... I can... I... um... here." She reached forward and tried to wipe off some of the blood, at which point Carol responded with a sharp cry.

"Domb touch it!"

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"

Meanwhile, Knuckles was still trying to calm the enraged hedgehog. "Amy, I'm telling you! She was fighting Eggman, and I saved her. But then she..."

"Oh, you saved her huh!?" Amy yelled. "What, so you could beat her up yourself!?"

"No! I wasn't trying to... she... she has a..."

"You know what!?" Amy demanded. "I think you owe her an apology!"

"Apology? No! Amy, will you listen to me!?"

Amy raised her hammer again, forcing him to draw back. "Apologize..." She growled.

"I... I..." Knuckles murmured under his breath.

"Five."

"What?"

"Four."

"Oh Chaos, you've got to be kidding me."

"Three."

Knuckles growled and turned around, making for the bleeding wildcat and the hound, of whom the latter was beginning to calm down.

"Hey..." He muttered. The sight of him caused both girls to draw back in anger.

"Calm... calm down. I'm..." He groaned and turned back to Amy, who waved her hammer back and forth menacingly.

He sighed and turned to the two girls. "I'm... sorry."

"That?"

"That I... tried to punch you."

"Yeah." Carol said behind her hand. "'Tribed.' Thure. Thay dat to my nobe."

"I..." Knuckles finally noticed how badly the wildcat was hurt, and guilt seeped into his heart. "Okay, I'm sorry for what I did, alright? I got angry. I didn't mean to hurt either of you."

Milla and Carol still observed him with a hostile eye, but Amy seemed to be satisfied. "Alright then." She said brightly. "Now that that's out of the way, we can all talk like regular people."

"Oh totabby!" Carol growled. "Jutht a bunch ob bubbies, all laubing tobether. What fun!"

"Carol." Milla said sadly. "Try not to talk. We really need to fix your nose first."

"You guys said you had a ship." Amy said. "Do you have something there that can patch it up?"

Milla looked at Carol, who shrugged and nodded. "Yeah." She said. "I think so."

"Great! Me and _Knuckles..._ " she said, glaring at the echidna. "will escort you there."

"Amy, please. I don't have time for this."

She raised her hammer again. "Oh, I think you do."

Knuckles growled and crossed his arms, but relented. "Fine. Make it quick."

"We'll take as much time as we need. That being said..." She turned to the girls. "Where is your ship exactly?"

"Uh..." Carol looked around, suddenly realizing she wasn't sure where she had left her motorcycle. "Imb not thure. I..."

"Carol!" Milla ordered. "Stop talking! Just make sure your nose doesn't bleed too much."

Carol, surprised at the authority in the young hound's voice, nodded and held her head back, trying to stop the flowing blood.

Milla meanwhile, turned to Amy. "Um, I think I can find Carol's motorcycle, and then we can use that to find our ship."

"Okay great! Lead the way!"

Milla nodded, then got down on all-fours and began sniffing the earth, trying to find the trail that would take them back. Behind her, Amy and Carol walked side by side, while Knuckles reluctantly dragged behind.

* * *

It didn't take long for Milla to find the trail, and within minutes, the four were standing next to the foot of the cliff.

"Alright." Amy said. "We ready to climb up?"

"I think so." Milla said. She turned to the wildcat. "Carol?"

She nodded. The bleeding from her nose had begun to slow, but she still held her hand under her nostrils, keeping the majority of it at bay.

"Okay." Milla said. "I think we're ready."

"Okay. Knuckles? Do your stuff!"

The echidna nodded, then casually walked to the cliff's face, reared back a fist, and punched the stone with a force that left a hole in the rock.

"Uh, what are you..." Before Milla could finish, Amy jumped onto Knuckles' back and, carrying the pink hedgehog, the echidna began to climb the cliff wall, leaving a trail of fist-sized holes in the stone.

"Oh!" Milla said and ran to the cliff, putting a hand in one of the holes. "He's making a ladder for us!"

"Aw..." Carol sighed. _That's no fun._

Even still, she was glad that they wouldn't have to climb the cliff normally. With the pain throbbing in her nose, she didn't feel up to doing anything fancy.

"Come on! Let's go!" Milla put her foot up into the first hold and hoisted herself up, beginning the long climb.

Carol, to make sure that she didn't slip while climbing up, wiped her hand on her shirt, leaving a streak of blood across her chest. _I must look like a murder movie,_ she thought looking down. Despite this, she climbed up just behind Milla, and began to follow in their path.

The climb was made very easy for the two girls, thanks to the handholds that Knuckles had made for them, and within minutes, all four of them were at the top, in plain sight of Carol's bike.

"Um." Carol said as they began to make their way towards it. "I don't think all of us are gonna fit."

"Oh, that's okay." Amy said. "We're both pretty fast; I'm sure we can keep up with you."

Carol snickered. _They've got no idea what that baby can do._

Even still, she jumped up onto the bike, and kicked it into low gear, while Milla climbed up and sat right behind her.

"Um, Carol?" She asked before they set out.

"Yeah?"

"How are we going to explain all this to Lilac and Torque?"

"Oh, uh. I didn't really think of that. I guess we can just say... hmm." She thought for a minute.

"Should we tell them the truth?"

"Uh, I guess so. Part of it. Well, kinda. Let's just try to avoid sayin' we ran off, just to make sure they don't get too mad."

Milla still looked unsure, but she nodded. "Okay."

"Hey, no worries. I've done this kinda stuff before, and Lilac's always been... sorta cool about it. Sometimes."

"O... okay."

"You ready girls?" Amy said, walking up to them.

"I'm ready!"

"Yep. Let's roll!"

"Hmph." Knuckles muttered.

"Alright. Let's go!" And soon, the four were speeding through the grassland, retracing their path back to the wrecked ship.

* * *

Carol was surprised at how fast Knuckles and Amy could run. They were obviously nowhere near as quick as Lilac, but they were both keeping pace with the motorcycle remarkably well, despite the fact that Carol wasn't going at its top speed.

 _We're gonna be back sooner than I thought._ She said to herself.

Though, that still might not be soon enough. As she looked up at the sky, she saw that the Sun was starting to fall, beginning its descent into the horizon.

 _Lilac said they would be back before dark. We're gonna be cutting it close._

Once again, she wondered if Lilac had found anyone in her journey. It seemed much more likely now than it did before, now that Carol had proof that there was actual life on the planet. Even if it wasn't all friendly.

She frowned as her mind drew back to Dr. Eggman, and all of his robots. She wondered if he was going to show up and cause them anymore trouble.

 _Aw, we can take that crackpot. I'd bet Knuckles can handle any bucket of bolts he could throw at us._

She smiled as she looked sidelong at the echidna, sprinting beside her. Close enough to touch. She observed him head to toe as he ran; his feet hitting the ground in a blur; his long tresses flowing behind him in the wind; his cold, iron-hard stare that was fixed straight ahead. He emitted an air of such confident power, as well as a subtle grace that Carol couldn't help but admire.

Suddenly, Knuckles noticed how Carol was staring at him, and he shot her an inquisitive eye. Embarrassed, she quickly looked away and began to scan the land around them.

It was at this moment, that her sharp eyes caught something strange in the distance.

"Hey, guys?"

They all looked at her. "What?" Amy called. "What is it?"

Carol pointed. "Do you see that?"

One by one, the hedgehog, echidna, and motorcycle slid to a stop, and all eyes followed Carol's finger.

Far away in the distance, on the top of the horizon, was a huge trail of swirling dust, thrown up by something that was moving across the landscape at a remarkable speed.

"Is... is it Lilac?" Milla asked.

"No way. She's not that fast."

Amy's countenance brightened. "Oh! Knuckles, do you think..."

The echidna sported a sour look on his face. "Oh great..." He muttered.

"What is it?" Carol asked.

Before either could answer, the trail of dust made a sudden, sharp turn, heading directly towards them.

"It's coming."

"Um... is it dangerous?" Milla asked.

"Depends on your definition of dangerous." Knuckles growled.

Amy slapped his arm, making him flinch. "Knuckles! He isn't dangerous! In fact..." She said with a smile. "I think we're safer now than ever."

It was coming closer and closer, with the speed of a jet fighter. Within seconds, it had closed the distance between them, and with a rush of wind, made a pinpoint stop directly in front of them.

"Hey!" Sonic said with a grin. "You found them, Knuckles!"

* * *

Lilac sat quietly with her back to the red ship, and her arms wrapped around her legs. She, Sonic, and Tails had each set out to look for her lost friends, but Lilac had had little luck in her own search. Discouraged, she had reluctantly returned to the red pod and waited, hoping Sonic or Tails could have more luck.

She looked up at the sky, and saw that the sun was beginning to set. Which meant Carol had been gone for more than half of the day.

 _I'm going to kill that cat,_ she thought, an idea that had passed through her mind more than once.

She sighed, and put her head in her arms, waiting. For what, she wasn't sure. Maybe she was waiting for Carol and Milla to return; maybe she was waiting for Sonic or Tails to come with news, good or bad; or maybe she was waiting for Torque, who she imagined should have already been back. Whatever she was waiting for, it was eating away at her heart, and filling her with a burning anger.

 _I'm going to kill that cat,_ she thought for the dozenth time.

Suddenly, a dull roar interrupted her brooding. She raised her head to the sky, looking for the Tornado, when she realized the roar was not the sound of a plane, but something more familiar.

She jumped to her feet and ran around the side of the ship. And far away, but drawing steadily closer, was a cloud of dust, that was spearheaded by two specks of blue, and red.

Her fists and teeth clenched and she stood with a burning chest, waiting for the approaching figures.

Sonic was, of course, the first to arrive, sliding to a stop with a triumphant grin. And some distance behind him, followed by two others that Lilac didn't recognize, rode Carol and Milla, each with a large smile on their faces.

"You know." Sonic said with a grin. "You people really do like to race."

Lilac ignored him, pushing past the hedgehog and stomping towards the doomed wildcat.

 _Murder time..._ she thought.

"Hey Lilac!" Carol said with a smile as she slid the bike to a stop, Milla sitting just behind her. "Did you meet that Sonic guy? I think he's like, a hundred times faster than you!"

Her face fell when she noticed the fury burning in Lilac's eyes. "Oh, um..."

"WHERE!? HAVE!? YOU!? BEEN!?"

Carol began to deflate like a balloon. "I... I... um..."

"L... Lilac." Milla whimpered. "It... it isn't her fault..."

"QUIET!" She yelled, making the hound shrink back.

"Hey." Said one of the two newcomers, a red creature with long hair. "What's going on?"

"Is she alright?" Asked the pink one.

Sonic quickly ran around Lilac and began pushing the two away, chuckling nervously. "I'll explain everything in a minute. Let's just let the volcano erupt first."

"What did you do to your nose!?"

* * *

Meanwhile, high in the sky, Dr. Eggman sat in his damaged pod, furiously cursing every species of animal he could imagine. After having been forced to leave the severely damaged Goliath behind, it was an understatement to say he was livid.

"That miserable, flea ridden, furball!" He bellowed. "I had the Emerald in the palm of my hand! I should have won! But then that imbecilic, red, knucklehead dared to interfere! Gah!"

He threw his arms up in exasperation, once again cursing all of animal-kind. "Well," he growled. "If they really think they've beaten me, ohoho, they have another thing coming..."

With this he activated his pod's onboard sensor system, designed to search out objects of considerable power, such as the Chaos Emeralds. However, it was only on for a second, before it stuttered and died.

"Grrrah!" Eggman pounded the screen furiously. "You piece of junk! Work!"

With a buzz and a pop, the screen activated to show a static-ridden radar, beeping with consistent timing. "Now then, where have you run off to?"

But unfortunately, the screen suddenly died again. However, as the doctor raised his fist to strike it again, he realized what the problem was. "Wait." He muttered. "This is no technical issue." He examined the flickering screen. "Something is interfering with my equipment."

He scratched his mustache in thought. "The only person I know who can do this, is that irritating fox. And even then, he can't do it to this extent..."

Intrigued, he began to study the strange signal, trying to pinpoint it's location. Within moments, he had detected an energy reading far to his East. "Excellent." He said. "Let's find out what you are my dear."

He turned his pod, and he began to move towards the signal, deeply interested in whatever could be powerful enough, or intelligent enough, to disrupt his equipment. However, he was not the only one, as high in the sky, flying far out of the good doctor's sight, was a silent, blue plane, trailing his every move.


	12. Chapter 12

"See anything Buster?"

Of course, there was no response from the robotic shell, standing at attention behind the Chaser. Torque wasn't expecting one. But since the scuffle with the security turrets, things had been far too quiet for his taste. He only talked to the mindless robot to relieve a bit of his own anxiety.

Even still, he felt his heart begin to pound furiously as he gazed into the long corridor stretching in front of him. Lined across both sides of the hall were tall, cylindrical, glass tanks. Some were still intact, and were filled with the same substance that once filled Buster's suit, along with a single Shade. However, most of them had been shattered by the impact of the crash, and shards of broken glass littered the floor.

Torque sighed as he stepped into the Med-Bay, with Buster following just behind. "Fantastic." He muttered. "Great job Torque; you thought that a Med-Bay on a ship full of robots and mutants would have just what you needed. Great thinking!"

He mentally slapped himself, feeling awfully foolish. However, he decided that he should take a minute to explore at least, just to make sure it wasn't a complete waste of time.

"C'mon buddy." He said, motioning to the robot, and they began to walk through the long corridor.

All the while, Torque's eyes scanned the walls, looking for a break in the seemingly endless lineup of glass containers. As he walked, he shifted his broken arm slightly, inadvertently causing a jolt of pain to run up to his shoulder.

"Oh, for crying out loud…" He muttered, tenderly stroking the pained spot. He couldn't hope to do anything in his current state. If he was to be any more help to his crew, then he really needed to solve the problem. He only needed a better brace, at the very least.

He sighed as he drew his head up, once again searching for something different in the unending lineup. Eventually, he caught sight of a door set in the wall in between two of the tubes. Hopefully, he stepped up to the door, and pressed the button on the wall next to it. Behind it, he saw a decently sized storage area, filled with all sorts of devices and containers that Torque couldn't recognize at first glance. The walls were lined with shelves, but few things were resting on them: Most of the supplies were lying scattered on the floor.

"Let's see…" He said as he stepped in. "There's gotta be something in here."

As he and Buster stepped into the long room, Torque bent down and picked up a small glass tube, filled with a dark purple substance that he didn't recognize. He sighed as he turned the tube over in his hand, looking for a label. "This is going to be hard." He muttered.

"Buster." He said, turning to the robot. "I need you to look for a… well a… Um…"

 _Oh never mind,_ he thought. _I don't even know what I'm looking for exactly. He's definitely not going to find anything._

"Just… stand at attention. Stay until I command otherwise."

The machine stood up straight, hoisting its rifle across its chest as it obeyed his order. Meanwhile, Torque turned around and began to rummage through the scattered medical supplies, looking for anything unique.

It took a while, and he had almost begun to lose hope, when his eye caught something he had definitely not been expecting. Sitting behind a large, steel crate, was a smaller box that was shining with a blue glow. As he drew closer, Torque saw that the box itself was made of glass, and it was rather what lie within that was glowing blue.

"No way." He whispered, as he knelt down to observe the crate. Inside, he could see what looked like a chorus of blue shooting stars, swirling around each other as though they were dancing in the void of space. As he pressed his hand onto the smooth glass, the stars inside began to subtly draw closer to him, as though they were attracted to his flesh.

Torque couldn't believe his eyes. The box was full of nano-machines; thousands upon thousands of microscopic robots that were specifically designed to repair any and all injuries that an organic or robot could sustain. Every single one had the intelligence of a supercomputer, and it was said that a steady dose of them could make someone close to immortal. Torque couldn't believe that Brevon had gotten a hold of some of them, as they were extremely rare in Coalition space.

Even still, Torque couldn't believe his luck. He had hoped at the most that he would have found a type of painkiller, at the least a better brace. But this: This wouldn't just remedy the problem, this would solve it completely.

"Let's get you out." He whispered, and he set his hand on the crate to try to figure out a way to open it. After a moment of probing, he saw a button on the corner that he promptly pressed. With a pop, the top of the crate flipped open, and the nano-machines within swarmed out.

They were beautiful. Torque couldn't help but marvel as he watched them fly about like wisps, circling him like microscopic moons. Eventually, all at once, they covered him, entering his body through the pores of his skin and flooding every part of his system. The lights disappeared as the last one entered his flesh, and he breathed a sigh. It wouldn't be long now.

His injured arm began to twitch as he began to feel a dull pain deep inside of it, which slowly began to increase in intensity. He gritted his teeth as the nanobots began the process of mending the broken bone. He could feel as the microscopic machines moved the bone back into its proper position, and it was the strangest sensation that Torque had ever felt. Despite his efforts to keep it still, he couldn't help but twitch and clench as jolts of pain began to emanate from the break.

Soon, the pain and strangeness subsided, and Torque breathed a sigh of relief. Carefully, yet hopefully, he tried to bend the arm, and to his joy, he discovered that it didn't seem to cause any pain.

With another sigh of relief, he stripped the newly repaired arm out of Carol's scarf, and held it up to his face in wonder, examining every inch of it. "That's incredible." He whispered, clenching his fingers.

Clearing his throat and pocketing the scarf, he turned back around to Buster. "Ready to go, buddy?" He asked.

Not waiting for a response, he walked up and patted the machine on its shoulder. "Buster. Start following me again."

The machine lowered its rifle in response, and began to follow the Chaser out of the storage area. Torque meanwhile was internally celebrating, knowing that his detour had payed out in full.

 _Not long now,_ he thought. _The warp core isn't too far. I just need to get the Stone back and then I'll be out of here. Piece of…_

His train of thought was interrupted when he suddenly noticed a strange sound coming from just beyond the open door. A sound that was akin to water spewing from a hose was echoing a ways down from the direction Torque had come from.

Brow downturned and heart beginning to beat, the Chaser unlatched his blaster and carefully peeked around the corner.

What he saw made his breath catch in his throat. A group of three Shade Troopers were standing guard around one of the intact glass tanks, while an empty suit was attached to a thick hose, pumping the green slime from the tall tube into the empty shell.

But that wasn't what had Torque scared. Rather, it was what was floating above the Troopers, overseeing the process that had him frightened. A green, bulbous head; two, long, dangling tentacles; and a cold, emotionless green eye, Syntax watched as the suit was filled to the brim with the vile substance in preparation for its Shade host.

 _Brevon's computer?_ Torque thought. _How is that possible? The girls destroyed her!_

The answer wasn't hard to deduct. Syntax was an advanced AI, which meant that she could upload herself into another body at a moment's notice. She must have transferred before Lilac and Carol delivered the finishing blow.

And now, she was here, watching as the last of the green substance was pumped into the suit, forcing the Shade within the tube to get sucked down the hose and into its new home. Torque watched as the small creature floated up to the viewing visor, blinking in what almost seemed like confusion. While one of its brethren unlatched the hose from the suit, Syntax floated down and inserted one of her tendrils into a slot in the back of the newcomer's suit. The machine jolted as though it had been struck by lightning, before rising up and saluting the robot.

 **I am your commander.** Syntax said in her droning, irritatingly pleasant voice. **You will follow me to receive your orders.**

While the new Shade Trooper lowered its arm and began to follow as Syntax and the other Troopers began to float away, Torque raised an eyebrow. Orders? What could she be talking about? What was she planning?

Deciding that it was too important to ignore, Torque decided that he would have to trail her, to see what she was doing. "Come on Buster." He whispered. "Follow me."

And the Chaser and the reprogrammed suit began to follow the AI and her escort as they went deeper into the Med-Bay. While Torque was trying his best to stay out of sight by slinking along behind the glass tubes, he was concerned that Buster would alert attention, since the mindless robot wasn't exactly graceful as it clunked along behind him. Even still, he didn't dare leave him behind, since he would appreciate a bit of backup if they ended up in a fight.

Eventually, Syntax, along with her knowing and unknowing followers, came to a closed door at the end of the hallway. Syntax pressed the button next to the door, and with a hiss, it opened to a smaller room with a single medical tube, hidden within a steel cover. Before the door could close behind them, Torque and Buster slipped in and quickly hid behind a small crate, while Syntax slowly floated towards the lone tube.

Torque watched as the machine plugged one of her tendrils into the console next to the hidden tank. He wasn't sure why, but he had a deep sense of unease as he watched the cold machine do her work. Whatever was housed within that tank wasn't a good thing.

Soon enough, after Syntax had finished downloading the data, she unplugged her tendril and without moving, wrapped the other around a lever that was attached to the steel cover. She flipped the lever, and then drew back as the cover suddenly unlocked with a hiss.

Torque's palms began to sweat and his heart began to beat furiously as he watched the steel curtain raise into the ceiling. Through the glass, he could see a dark form floating in a pool of light blue liquid. When Torque's eyes focused onto the form, he felt a jolt of fear that made his heart drop into his stomach.

"Oh no…" He whispered. "No, no, no. Please no…"

But there was no mistaking it: The green skin, bare save for a medical loincloth wrapped around his waist; the thick, powerful arms; the broad, muscular chest; and the long, brown eyebrow that extended far above his head.

Inside that tank, was the crippled and unconscious, yet very much alive figure of Lord Arktivus Brevon.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _I am the slowest writer ever... of all time._

 _But seriously, here it is! Finally, Chapter 12! I'm terribly sorry for the ridiculously long wait, and I'm sorry that this chapter is rather short. I was intending it to be quite a bit longer but, looking back, I think this is a pretty good place to end it for now._

 _So, don't worry everybody, I'm going to be putting all of my effort into Chapters 13 and 14, just to make up for the weeks I've made you wait. Then, I'll probably write the next chapter for Adventures: Reimagining, and then I'll start alternating between the two stories. (Well, that's the plan anyway.)_

 _Anyway, thank you all for viewing and reviewing and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	13. Chapter 13

"Oh, you are beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."

A broad smile was spread across Dr. Eggman's face as he hovered above the massive structure. Following the strange signal to its source, he had found something that he had not been expecting: An enormous ship, so large that it even rivaled his old Death Egg. The ship seemed to have crashed, leaving a huge crater of dirt and debris in its wake, and large pillars of smoke emanated from deep within, rising up into the sky.

The ship was alien, there was almost no doubt about that. Its design, its engines and weapons, and its sheer size alone. The good doctor had never seen anything like it before.

And then, there was the energy that he was detecting. Though it was nowhere near the level of the Chaos Emeralds, the energy that was coming from inside that ship was significant enough that it brought a truly blissful smile to the doctor's lips. He had never been able to achieve that level of power through his own means, which is why he was constantly forced to use the Emeralds to power his greatest creations. If he could harness and study that ship's power source, he could very well become unstoppable.

Of course, he doubted it would be quite that simple. He could tell from the ship's appearance that it was designed for war, so he couldn't be sure that if anything had survived the crash, that they was going to be overly friendly.

He chuckled. "Oh, however rude they may be to guests, I'm sure I can be _much_ ruder."

Still chuckling to himself, he leaned over and activated his radio. "Eggman here. I need a battalion to report to my position. Send a squad of scouts, and a few heavy lifters as well."

"Affirmative." Came the metallic reply. "Right away, Doctor."

Eggman smiled and leaned back in his seat. "Better safe than sorry." He purred, already imagining himself holding the energy source in his hands. Today was starting to look up for him.

* * *

Torque couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. He was frantically going over every possible scenario in his mind that would ensure that Brevon stayed dead.

But he couldn't. There he was, right in front of him: The monster himself. Just looking at his face made a wave of rage and fear wash over the Chaser's mind. He so desperately wanted to wipe that vile man from the galaxy.

But he knew he couldn't. Brevon's body was surrounded by a squadron of Shade Troops, as well as Syntax herself. He couldn't hope to win against those odds.

 _Maybe a bomb._ He thought. _If I can get one good shot out before they notice…_

His thoughts were interrupted when one of the Shade Troops activated a button on the console next to Brevon's tank. Brevon's body jolted as though it had been struck by lighting and almost immediately, his eyes shot open.

He groaned, and shook his head, before focusing on his robotic minion. "Syntax." He murmured, the words coming out of a small speaker near the base of the tank, distorting and warping his already intimidating voice.

 **Good evening Sir.** Syntax droned. **I hope you had a pleasant rest.**

"What do you want?" He growled. He obviously didn't seem pleased at being so rudely awakened.

 **Data has been received from preliminary scans. Would you like a report on the status of the Dreadnought?**

The green warlord sighed. "Very well."

Syntax drew back and activated a holographic map of the ship, projected from her eye. **As you can see, power has been restored to three major sections. However, both short and long-ranged scanners are still inoperable, as well as long-range communications.**

She began listing off major systems that had been damaged in the crash, all while highlighting sections of the ship on the holographic map. After a while, Brevon could be seen to become more and more agitated. After a while, an expression that few if any had ever seen on Brevon's face and lived to tell the tale began to appear. Disappointment, resignation. "I have seen enough." He said at last, his voice strangely soft... only to suddenly explode in rage and frustration. "I cannot believe this! Even with all my work and planning, I failed again!" The only thing that stopped him from striking the wall of his tank in rage were the muscular sedatives laced throughout the healing liquid.

 **Well Sir, not entirely.**

"What?" He demanded.

 **Reports show that the artifact is still on board.**

Brevon's eyes widened. "They didn't take it? Perhaps they couldn't." He closed his eyes in thought for a moment. "Syntax! Have the emergency security systems been activated?"

 _Emergency security,_ thought Torque, _still peeking around the corner. How many security systems does he need before he feels right at home?_

 **Negative.** She responded. **Reports show that security is only operable in sections where power has been restored. Emergency systems do not respond.**

"Well then, send as many soldiers as can be spared to the Stone. It's our last hope, and I don't want to risk it."

 **Affirmative.**

 _Oh no,_ Torque thought. _Don't do that._

"What about the Chasers?" Brevon inquired. "Have they been found?"

 **Negative. It is unknown if they survived the crash.**

Brevon growled, a deep growl that was full of contempt and loathing. "If they did, then I want them captured. They will pay dearly for ruining my plans."

 **Of course sir. And what do we do if we find the intruders?**

"I told you: Capture them."

 **Not the Chasers, Sir. The other intruders.**

 _What?_ Torque thought.

"What? What do you mean?" Brevon demanded.

 **General Serpentine was found subdued and secured a short while ago, and security systems have been triggered in sections that…**

"Serpentine?" Brevon interrupted. "He's alive?"

Torque's heart started to beat faster.

 **Affirmative. He's being taken to this medical facility as we speak.**

Brevon seemed pleased. "That's excellent news. But how do know it wasn't the Chasers that got him?"

 **Descriptions of the intruder do not match the profiles of any of the known Chasers. It is most probable that the intruder is a native of the planet.**

 _What?_ Torque thought. _Someone else is on the ship?_

Brevon pondered for a minute. "See if this intruder means any harm. Else, I want you to make sure to confront it with a functional holographic projector. Make sure it does not find this medical bay."

 **Affirmative.**

Torque racked his brain, trying to come up with a plan. _I've got get out of here and find this 'intruder' before they do. We can't afford him getting another ally, willing or unwilling._

Torque began to quickly glance around, coming up with a plan for how he could slip out unnoticed. But even as he did, a thought was eating away at the back of his mind, keeping him from coming up with the perfect plan.

Brevon was alive. Brevon was here. He was injured, crippled, but he was healing. His plans had been dashed, but he was already forming new ones.

But most important of all; he was _vulnerable._ If Torque truly did want to wipe this man from existence, what was stopping him now?

 _Nothing._ Torque thought. _Nothing is in my way but myself. This is it: No more fear, no more delays or complications. I'm going to stop him, here and now._

Time seemed to slow down for him as he unhooked his blaster. With sweat forming beneath his gloves and the top of his brow, he loaded a fire orb into the red weapon, and shifted his body, fully prepared to spring into action.

 _This is it,_ he thought. _Your time is up, Brevon._

Letting out a vicious cry that he was surprised had come from his lips, he pounced out from behind the steel crate, directly in plain view of Brevon and his guards. Ignoring the brief flash of shock that shot across the warlord's face, he raised his blaster, and pulled the trigger.

A shimmering ball of fire erupted from the blaster, barreling towards the medical tank and the monster within. Despite the nagging feeling in his mind that he should try to escape, Torque's eyes were glued to the fireball as it struck the side of Brevon's tank, and exploded into a blinding flash, and a deafening boom.

Shutting his eyes against the bright explosion, Torque felt a spasm of joy shoot throughout his body. He had done it. In less than a minute, on little more than an impulse, he had destroyed the man who had taken so much away from him. He could swear that his heart was pounding out of his chest.

But after what seemed like an eternity, reality began to set in, and the need to escape rose inside his mind. Before the smoke could even clear from the explosion, he had spun around on his heels and began his sprint out of the small medical room. "C'mon, Buster!" He cried.

But he had barely made it out the door when he felt something cold wrap around his neck. He felt his feet fly out from under him as the something stopped his flight with a jolt, and he felt a brief moment of panic as his air supply was cut off.

Being raised up into the air by the tentacle wrapped around his neck, with his legs kicking frantically, he found himself face-to-sensor with Syntax's cold eye.

 **Greetings, Commander.** She droned. **We were worried you hadn't survived the impact.**

Torque tried to raise his blaster, but Syntax wrapped her second arm around his wrist. She began to tighten her grip slowly, to the point that Torque would have cried out in pain, had it not been for the tight hold she had around his neck. Vainly, the Chaser tried to struggle out of her iron clench, but eventually, the pain became so great that he was worried she would break his arm again. Defeated, he dropped his blaster on the ground.

 **Thank you.** She said, loosening her grip slightly, as a Shade Trooper ran to pick the fallen weapon up. Still holding the Chaser in her tentacles, she turned around and floated back into the small room.

The power of Torque's Fire Bomb was evident by the destruction it had left behind. Pieces of Troopers that were unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast littered the floor, and both the sight and smell of smoke still lingered in the air. However, as Torque's eyes drew up to what his intended target was, he could feel a jolt of panic shoot through his body.

 _No,_ he thought. _That's impossible._

A broad, mocking smile was spread across Brevon's face, still safely contained in his untouched medical tank. "Well, well. I would never have expected such a show of bravery from you, Commander. Release him."

Syntax unwrapped her iron grip on Torque's neck, and he fell on his hands and knees, coughing as his lungs sucked in air once more. All the while, Brevon watched with obvious pleasure as the Chaser shakily climbed back to his feet, guarded closely by the remaining three Troopers.

"You… you're…" He coughed.

"Alive? Don't tell me you're surprised, Commander. Your petty Coalition has been badgering me for years. Do you honestly think you and your pets would be the ones to finally defeat me?"

 **Sir.** Syntax interrupted. **It appears as though he's reprogrammed a soldier.**

Torque spun around to see Syntax lifting a limp, deactivated Buster into the air. "No!" He cried. He tried to dash forward to stop her, but he was stopped as a Trooper grabbed hold of his shoulder

Brevon chuckled. "Very clever, Commander." He gestured to Syntax. "Outfit that suit with a Shade. We need every soldier we can spare."

 **Affirmative.** She responded, and turned around, carrying Torque's last hope back into the Medical Bay, where it would soon become yet another enemy he would have to face.

"Now then, Commander." Brevon growled. "I think you and I have things we need to discuss."

"If you think I'm going to tell you a thing, then you've got something else coming!"

He smiled evilly. "Oh really? Because I seem to remember you cracking quite easily, just a short while ago."

"You had Lilac then, but you'll get no such pleasure now. She's dead! They're all dead!" He lied, trying to sound as angry as possible, which wasn't too difficult.

Brevon's eyes flashed with amusement. "I doubt that. A rash as irritating as that child doesn't go away so easily."

"Well it's true! You and your insane conquest killed them!"

Brevon began to laugh deeply. "I killed them? Oh no, Commander, I didn't kill them. If they truly are dead, then they killed themselves. I gave them a chance to leave, to stay out of affairs that were too large for them. And yet they refused my offer, blindly charging into a dangerous game."

"You didn't give Milla a chance when you turned her against her friends!"

"Ah yes. That unfortunate event." He laughed evilly. "But tell me, how could you have possibly known that?"

"I…"

He smiled. "It seems that you are lying, Commander. So tell me, where are your pets?"

"I told you, they're dead!" Despite his attempts to sound confident, he couldn't stop his voice from trembling under Brevon's burning gaze.

"It's no use protecting them, Commander. Sooner or later, I will find them, and I will make them pay for disrupting my plans."

"'Disrupting?'" Torque scoffed. "I think you mean 'ruining.' Your ship isn't in the best condition right now."

"Oh, I'm perfectly aware of that, and I'm already making plans to remedy that problem. Rest assured Commander, I will rise again, and there is nothing you or your precious Coalition can do to stop me."

Torque clenched his fists, trying to find a way to disprove him. But standing there, weaponless, surrounded by soldiers, miles away from any possible help, and staring down possibly the most evil warlord that had ever surfaced from the Coalition, he couldn't help but feel there really was no hope.

Brevon began to laugh, seeing how the Chaser's face had begun to fall into resignation. "Tell me, Commander. Why are you always the one to survive?"

Torque's head shot up in confusion. "What?"

"Your Coalition has sent hundreds, if not thousands of foolish soldiers and heroes to stop me, and they have all fallen before me. Your crew was the last one, and even though they got close, I still wiped them from the face of the galaxy. Except you. Somehow, you survived. So tell me: Why?"

"I… I escaped before…"

"No. I said why, Commander. I do not care about how you escaped me, I am asking you, why? Why are you the one to survive my hand? You are nothing. A coward. A petty engineer. So why is it that you have eluded me so long and so often, when I have decimated some of the most skilled warriors in the galaxy?"

Torque couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had very often asked the same question ever since that day. Why was he the one who survived, when everyone else hadn't?

The answer finally came to him. His head drew back up; defiant determination plastered across his face. "Because of a promise."

Brevon began to laugh a deep, mocking laugh. "A promise?"

"Yeah. A promise I made to my captain, on his last breath. I swore to him that I would stop you, at any cost necessary. It became my duty, my mission, to save the galaxy from your insanity!"

"Well," Brevon purred, "It's such a shame that you couldn't keep that promise, hmm?"

"You're wrong!" Torque yelled. "I did keep it. I have stopped you! Even if you kill me now, you're already defeated!"

He began to struggle against the Trooper's grasp, trying to step up to Brevon's tank. "They're coming for you, and you can't stop them! They'll find out that you're alive, and then they're going to come for you!"

"Who?" Brevon growled, starting to become angry with the Chaser's apparent resolve.

"Lilac!" Torque yelled. "And her friends! You didn't break them, and you didn't kill them! You can't kill them! They're going to stop you! They're going to end your conquest, once and for all! You're finished, Brevon!"

"Enough of this!" Brevon bellowed at last, becoming flustered at the Chaser's verbal attack. He needed to retrieve his dominance. "You've made a terrible mistake, Commander. You say that those barbarians will be able to stop me, but you are sorely mistaken. Now I know that they are, in fact, alive, and now I can prepare for them. By the time they arrive to retrieve their precious Stone, it will already be too late. You'll be dead, and they will be next! Syntax!"

The soulless machine returned to her soulless master's room. **Yes Sir?**

"Retrieve the Trooper that the Commander reprogramed. I think it's only fitting that it be the one to end his life."

 **Of course, Sir.** She turned around and floated back into the Med-Bay. Mere moments later, she returned, with a Shade Trooper marching behind her. Torque's heart sunk as he saw his former ally, with its chamber full of the green substance, and a single, emotionless eye staring out of the glass.

"On your knees." Brevon growled.

Torque felt as the Trooper forced him to a kneel. "You can't save yourself, Brevon. They're going to stop you."

"Stop trying to scare me, Commander. It will not be long until I can leave this insufferable tube, and then, I will be able to deal with your pets personally. They may have gotten lucky once, but they will not again. They will meet their end at my blade. And unfortunately, you will not be there to witness it. Syntax, give the order."

 **Trooper,** she commanded. **Please execute the Commander.**

Torque closed his eyes as he prepared for the blast of pain. He was scared, undoubtedly, but at least he knew he could die with a flicker of hope. He knew that, even if he was gone, Lilac and her friends would still be able to stop this monster's plans. They had done it once, they could do it again. He had faith in them.

He could hear as the Trooper's weapon charged up, preparing to blow a hole in his head. He waited for the sound of plasma fire.

It came. Three, short blasts. He didn't feel anything.

 _What?_

It came a second time, three more short blasts. He still could feel nothing. No pain.

"What are you doing?!"

The furious roar startled Torque into opening his eyes, just in time to see the last Shade Trooper get gunned down by three, glowing plasma bursts. What the…

Torque spun around to see the Shade Trooper that was supposed to be his executor, standing with its rifle raised, the end of the barrel smoking.

 **Alert!** Syntax announced. **Rogue Trooper! You will…**

Before she had a chance to finish, the Trooper raised his rifle and fired a precise shot directly into the AI's green eye. The front of her face exploded into metal shrapnel, and she fell limply to the ground, sparks flying from her inner workings.

"No!" Brevon bellowed. "You traitorous bucket of bolts!"

 _What in blazes is going on?_ Torque thought as he watched this apparently completely loyal creature, turning on its old master.

Suddenly, the rogue Trooper turned to Torque causing the Chaser to instinctively throw his hands up to protect his face. However, instead of attacking, the Trooper marched up and gave the Chaser a firm salute.

 _What the…_

It suddenly clicked. _That suit is Buster. They... didn't wipe my reprograming. It still thinks I'm its Commander._

But it had a Shade inside of it. It was right there, staring out of the glass, suspended in the green slime, there was no doubt about that. Why was it still following him?

Torque was startled out of his confusion by the blaring of a security alarm. He spun around, just in time to see the steel curtain fall back down over Brevon's tank. Though Torque could no longer see the warlord, he could hear as Brevon said these words:

"Run while you can Commander! It doesn't matter how fast you go, you won't escape! You're going to d…"

He was silenced as Torque picked his blaster back up and fired a single shot into the speaker at the base of the tank. "Yeah, we'll see about that."

He spun around again. "Come on, Buster!" He cried, and the two dashed out of the room, and began their mad escape out of the Med-Bay.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** _See? I knew I could do it! I knew I could write fast if I put my mind to it! Chapter 13 up and running, and it hasn't even been a month!_

 _Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, because I had a lot of fun writing it. Brevon has always been one of my favorite villains, so it was a lot of fun coming up with dialogue for him. (Though, massive thanks to Mew Mew Psychic for helping edit it a bit. You made it better than I could have.)_

 _Anyway, like I promised, I'll have Chapter 13 up and running by the end of February, I swear._

 _Anyways, thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you soon._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	14. Chapter 14

"Ow!" Carol cried out, her head flinching back instinctively. "That hurt!"

"Sorry." Lilac murmured curtly, no real sorrow in her voice. "Just stop moving, and it won't hurt."

Carol sighed, and inched forward again, allowing her still angry friend to finish treating the wound above her eye.

The two were knelt near a tiny tree, just a small distance away from the crash site. Lilac was busy working on fixing Carol up, after her scuffle with the mad doctor, while Sonic was bringing Knuckles and Amy up to speed about their new friends' situation. Though the two girls remained out of sight of the others to give Carol some privacy as she was treated, Lilac's sour mood was making Carol wish that she wasn't alone with her.

"You know." She muttered as the dragon less-than-tenderly dabbed at the cut with a strip of cloth. "I said I was sorry."

"Yeah, I know."

Carol sighed again, and allowed her friend to patch her up in silence. Though she was trying to express an air of anger and stubbornness, inside, she truly was sorry for causing the dragon so much worry. Even if she felt as though Lilac was sorely overreacting.

Eventually, Lilac finished her doctoring, and placed an adhesive bandage over the wound. She then stood up and motioned to the battered wildcat. "Turn around." She ordered.

Carol frowned, but complied, turning her back to the dragon and showing her the multitude of scrapes and abrasions she had received when Eggman had hurled her against the tree.

"For crying out loud…" Lilac murmured, before bending down and beginning work. The cuts were too many to fix completely, so she was forced to only work on the worst ones, most notably a nasty gash that traveled down the side of her back to the top of her hip.

Carol flinched in pain as Lilac began cleaning the wound, but managed to keep her composure. She'd been hurt worse before, and hadn't been upset by it then.

No, what was upsetting her now was how callously Lilac was treating her. There was no gentleness, and no sympathy in her friend's touch, and what few words were said were laced with such cold malice that it caused Carol's heart to sink to her stomach. Carol couldn't remember the last time Lilac had been so angry, especially directed at her.

 _I really screwed up this time…_ she thought, her face drooping into glumness. _Carol, you idiot. What do you think you were doing? Couldn't you wait around for a few hours?_

As thoughts like these began to silently fester in her mind, Carol found herself becoming more and more angry. She wasn't just angry at herself for running off, but she was angry at everyone. She was angry at Lilac for treating her so unfairly, she was angry at Milla for following her when she had told her to stay behind, she was angry at Eggman for attacking her, and angry at Knuckles for breaking her nose, and angry at Amy for being so irritating, and…

"Done." Lilac muttered, standing up before Carol even had a chance to turn around. "I'm going back to the ship. You can come with, unless you're still feeling bored, and you want to go out and break your legs."

With that, she picked Carol's shirt up from the ground and threw it harshly into the wildcat's hands, before turning around and stomping off back towards the wrecked ship. However, rather than slip the shirt back on, Carol found herself rising up with her fists and teeth clenched, pure indignation boiling up into every corner of her body.

"What's your problem!?" She hollered.

Lilac paused, but didn't turn back around. Instead, her body tensed and Carol could see her fists slowly clench. Carol didn't care. She wasn't going to let Lilac treat her like this anymore. She was going to give her a piece of her mind.

"Look, I know I screwed up! I shouldn't have run off before you came back, and I'm sorry! But I'm not a baby, and you're not my mom; I don't need your permission to do what I want to do!"

Lilac suddenly spun around, and the fury burning in her eyes was enough to replace any of Carol's anger with timid fear.

"'Screwed up'?" She repeated. "'Permission'? You really have no idea, do you?"

She marched up to Carol and jabbed a finger into her chest. "You know what my _problem_ is? My problem is that you can't seem to figure out what's really important!"

"Wh… what are…"

Lilac ignored her friend's stutterings. "Do you even understand where we are? Do you think we're just lost in the woods near the treehouse again? We're not: We're stuck on another world, thousands of miles away from Avalice! We may never get home!"

"Well, why does that matter? I want to go home too, but it's not like we're gonna die out here!"

"You still don't get it!" She yelled. "It's not about us! Do you know what's going to happen if we can't get the Stone back? The kingdoms are going to suffer! People are going to starve! But you don't care about that, do you? All you care about is yourself!"

"Well why not?" She yelled with a trembling voice. "What did the stupid kingdoms ever do for me? They threw me out and treated me like garbage, even when I tried to help them! Why should I care about them?"

"Because you're supposed to be a good person!"

Carol's angry facade fell as she felt her heart shatter under Lilac's cruel accusation. She opened her mouth to reply, but tears were the only thing that emerged.

Lilac wasn't done, even though tears were brimming in her eyes as well. "I wish that I don't have to stick up for you at every turn! I wish I don't have to justify every stupid thing you do! I wish I could just trust you to do the right thing!"

"Will you shut up about 'doing the right thing?'" She yelled. "I can't do 'the right thing!' I can't do anything right! I'm not like you, Lilac; I'm not a good person, and I don't want to be! I just wanted to be friends with one!"

With that, she turned her back to the dragon to hide the tears that were dripping down her face. "I thought you cared about me. But I guess I was just being stupid again. No one cares about me."

Slowly, she sunk to the ground, putting her back to the trunk of the tree, bringing her legs to her chest, and hiding her head in her arms. "Just go away... " She whimpered. "Leave me alone."

Any anger or pride that Lilac was harboring completely dissipated as she watched her dearest friend sink into misery. Compassion tugged at her chest, and she longed to comfort her. "Carol…"

But a voice stopped her. _How could you? You're the one who did this to her. You're the one who called her a bad person. You're despicable; you'd just make it worse for her. Just go away._

Believing that there was nothing more to do, Lilac turned around and began to walk away from her broken-hearted friend, carrying a broken heart of her own.

Carol could hear the soft footfalls of of her friend's feet on the grass as she walked away. Every step seemed like one more nail in a coffin, since Carol felt as though Lilac was walking away for the last time.

"Good riddance…" She sobbed.

She sat there silently for moments, though it seemed like hours to her. All the while, tears continued to drip down her cheeks, and sobs kept clawing their way out of her throat. Spurred on by Lilac's departure, Carol's mind was destroying itself, tearing her apart with savage accusations and insults.

 _You stupid, miserable cat. You deserve this. You don't deserve to have any friends, and you don't deserve to have anyone to care about. You're stupid, lazy, annoying, and just dumb. You deserve to…_

"Carol…"

Carol suddenly felt a hand being placed gently onto her shoulder. Surprised, her head shot up, to see Lilac's wet, magenta eyes staring deeply into her own.

"I'm so sorry…" She whispered softly, before wrapping the bawling wildcat in a tender embrace. "I'm so sorry…" She repeated, breaking out into sobs as well.

Wrapped in each other's arms, crying into one another's shoulders, the two girls forgot all grievances and anger. As they cried, they wordlessly let out all of their fears, all of their worries, and everything that ate away at their hearts, giving it to the other in a tender and true display of friendship. They took hold of the other's burden, and in return, their own burdens were lightened, carried between the arms of two true friends.

After a few moments, Carol regained enough control of herself to whimper, "Lilac, I… I'm so sorry… I shouldn't have…"

"No." The dragon interrupted in a quivering voice. "It's not your fault. I shouldn't have gotten angry."

She paused as the two finally broke their embrace, with Lilac keeping her hands on the Wildcat's shoulders. "But you have to understand. I… I need… I know that you… that I have to… I…"

She sighed and cast her eyes to the ground, biting her lip. She seemed to be trying to think of the right words.

"Lilac?"

"Do you… remember when we first met?"

Carol sniffed, wiping her dripping nose, and nodded. "You mean, in the alley?"

"Yeah. Well… kinda. I mean after that."

"Oh." A shadow passed over the Wildcat's face. "You mean…"

Lilac nodded. "When Khar and his band of jerks ambushed us."

"'Ambushed' is putting it kindly."

"So, the time after that, when we were stuck on the streets trying to survive for those few months, I… really wasn't doing well."

"I know."

"You do?"

"Kinda. I mean, I didn't back then, because I didn't know you so well yet, but when I think about it now, I kinda realize you were really sad."

Lilac frowned, and looked away. "You don't know the half of it."

"W… what do you mean?"

"By that point, I… I had already lost a lot. My mom, my home, my life. When she died, I didn't know what to do at first. There was a time that I was afraid I was never going to get any of it back."

"But then I found Spade again, and joined the Scarves. With them… him… I felt like I had a family again."

Fresh tears sprang to her eyes. "And then I lost it again. When I tried to save you, I lost my new life. I thought that I would never get a chance again."

The tears grew thicker and she suddenly clenched her wrist as though she was trying to protect it. "I… I thought… that I wouldn't… wouldn't be able… to keep going." She said through labored sobs. "I… I almost…"

"Lilac?" Carol asked, sobs clawing at her throat too.

"I… almost…"

"Oh, Lilac…" And before the dragon could finish, Carol had leaned forward and grasped her friend in a firm hug. "Don't… don't ever… never…" The sobs became overwhelming.

"I… I won't… I promise…" Lilac cried.

After another moment of sobbing, and a deep breath, Lilac continued. "But, one day, just when I was most miserable, I finally figured it out. I was never going to have a life, I was never going to be happy. So I forgot about myself, and started to focus on you. I promised myself that I would look after you and do whatever it took, to make sure you didn't lose everything I did. And eventually, doing that for you, gave me a life I could call my own."

"And then I broke that promise." She covered her eyes with her hands. "When Torque came and told me about Brevon… I forgot about you, and I forgot about Milla. I was so blind, so stupid, that I almost got both of you killed."

"And I can't do that." She sobbed. "I can't lose you, I can't… I don't want…"

"Lilac," Carol said tenderly but convicted. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise. You never, _never_ have to worry about that." She smiled feebly. "It's like you said; I'm your tail. I'll always be right behind you."

Lilac closed her eyes and buried her face into the Wildcat's shoulder. "Thank you." She whispered.

Carol returned the gesture with another firm hug. "It's nothing, buddy."

The two girls were silent for a time after, simply enjoying the other's company while wrapped in each other's arms. However, when the soft sobbing finally ceased, and they broke away from each other, wiping their eyes and trying to regain their composure, Carol spoke up.

"Lilac, I'm really sorry that I ran off. I shoulda…"

"It's okay." Lilac interrupted. "I forgive you. I just… I worry about you, Carol. I don't think I could forgive myself if something bad happened to you, especially after all that's happened."

The dragon gave her friend a small smile. "Although, maybe I shouldn't worry so much. From what I've heard, you handled yourself really well down there. Milla too."

Carol shrugged. "I guess."

Lilac thought for a minute, before asking a question. "Why did Milla come with you?"

"What?"

"Well, I just thought that you would have wanted to leave in order to get away from her. And although I'm glad you didn't leave her alone, why did she come with?"

"Oh, well…" Carol chuckled sheepishly. "I... kinda did leave her at first, just to get a little alone time. But, she figured out what I was doing and followed me anyway. Honestly, I'm kinda glad she did. She was the one that found that big forest crater thing."

Lilac smiled. "Sounds like you actually had fun."

Carol shrugged. "Yeah, Milla really isn't that bad… I guess. Kinda. Hopefully when I'm done training her, she'll be a bit tougher."

The dragon raised an eyebrow. "Training?"

Carol puffed her chest out proudly. "When we were down there, we got talking about… stuff, and I decided that the best way to toughen her up was to teach her everything I know about martial arts. So I made her a promise that whenever I was available, we would go out and train her."

Lilac was positively beaming. "Really? You're doing that for her?"

"Yep!"

"Carol, that's fantastic. I can't tell you how much that's going to mean to Milla."

Carol shrugged. "Eh, it's nothing. She's not exactly ninja material, but maybe she'll figure it out. Eventually."

"Well, I really am happy for both of you."

Suddenly, Lilac noticed a figure walking up behind Carol, coming from the crash site. As he drew closer, she saw that it was the red one that had apparently broken Carol's nose, Knuckles.

"We've got company." Lilac said, pointing.

Carol's head turned, and the moment she saw Knuckles coming up behind them, she leapt to her feet as fast as lighting, surprising Lilac with the sudden movement. "Oh, hi Knuckles!" She said enthusiastically.

The echidna nodded. "Hey." He grumbled.

He came up to the two girls and crossed his arms. "You're Lilac, right?"

Lilac nodded, stood up, and outstretched her arm, which Knuckles grasped and shook. "Nice to meet you." She said. "Sorry about earlier."

Knuckles shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

"So, Knuckles." Carol said, standing in between him and the dragon, which made Lilac raise an eyebrow in wonder. "What're you doin' here?"

"I needed to talk to you."

"Really. About what?" She began to absentmindedly paw the ground with the toe of her shoe.

"Can I talk to you in private?" He asked, casting an eye towards Lilac.

"Oh… Sure! I… I guess. Just, uh… give me a sec."

Knuckles nodded. "And again, I'm sorry about that." He pointed to the small bandage that was covering Carol's raw nose.

"Oh." Carol lightly touched the bandage, before shrugging. "It's nothing. I mean, you helped me beat that egg guy. A broken nose really isn't that big of a problem."

Knuckles nodded. "Alright. I'll… see you in a second?"

"Sure!"

"Good." And with that, the echidna turned and walked away, leaving Carol to watch him as he left.

"What was all of that about?"

"Wha'?" Carol, remembering Lilac, turned around to face her friend, who she noticed had a large, knowing smile on her face. "Whaddaya mean?"

"Well," Lilac said, speaking in an almost smug tone. "Why'd you forgive him so quick? When Hannah broke your nose by accident in that one tournament, it took months before you would even speak to her again."

"Well, uh…" Carol shrugged. "I dunno. He's a cool guy, and it was kind of an accident."

Lilac smirked, and put her hands behind her back. "I don't know. You were acting a little odd then. If I didn't know better…"

She drew close, her face coming within inches of Carol's. "I'd say you liked him."

"What? Well, yeah. I mean, like I said; he's a… you know, a cool guy. And…"

"No." Lilac interrupted, her smile growing larger. "I mean you like, like him."

"What do…" Carol's eyes grew wide as she finally realized what Lilac was saying? "W… what?" She stuttered. "What are you talking about? I… I wouldn't… I mean, that's crazy. I mean, yeah, he's a cool guy…"

"You've said that three times." Lilac teased with a grin.

"Yeah, but… I… I mean, well… he… he's not… I don't… Ugh!"

"It's okay." Lilac said at last, cutting off her friends stuttering. "I understand. And I'm happy for you. It's about time you started acting like a girl."

"W… what?" Carol put her hands on her hips and glared at the dragon. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lilac just smiled.

* * *

 **Author's** **Note:** _I'm sorry it took so long, and I'm sorry that I had a lot of people thinking that I wouldn't be coming back to this, but I've been having to figure out a lot of things lately._

 _Long story short, even though I still don't like the direction that the game and the series is going, and though I'm staying by my decision to stay away from the community, I love Freedom Planet's characters too much to every really forget about it. So, I suppose I'll be trying to bring this story back from the dead. Hopefully that's good news for you all._

 _Anyway, thank you all for viewing and reviewing, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


	15. Chapter 15

"So then, whatcha wanna talk about, big guy?"

The green wildcat and the red echidna had left Lilac to walk back to the crash site, where Milla, Amy and Sonic still waited. The two stood behind a small hill, just out of view of the others where Knuckles could speak to Carol in private.

Knuckles frowned and rolled his eyes as Carol rocked back and forth on her feet, a wide grin on her face. "Stop calling me that."

"Aw, c'mon. It's just a nickname, buddy. It means I like you." Her smile fell as she realized what she said. "I mean… I didn't… uh…"

 _Dang it, Lilac. You're making me act like a doofus. I don't like him. I don't! I mean, I do, I just don't like, like…_

"Are you listening?"

Carol snapped out of her trance. "Sorry. What did you want?"

Knuckles glanced around, as though he was searching to see if anyone was spying on them. "You still have it, right?"

"Huh?"

"You know." He twirled his hand around in the air as though that would remind her. "It."

"Oh! You mean…"

She reached a hand into her pocket. However, as her fingers closed around the glowing, red gem, Knuckles quickly stopped her.

"Don't take it out." He glanced around again. "Listen, I need you to hold on to that for a while. Hide it from everyone, especially Sonic. I'm going to need it in a little bit, but I think it'll be safer with you right now."

Carol raised an eyebrow and huffed, putting her hands on her hips. "Will someone please tell me why people are so obsessed with this thing? I mean yeah, it's shiny or whatever, but people are treating it like it's the most valuable thing in the world."

Knuckles crossed his arms, and a slight grin curved at the edges of his lips. "You really are from another planet."

Carol's eyes narrowed as she glared at the echidna, which made him chuckle softly. "You're not too far off, but it's not valuable because it's shiny. That thing is called a Chaos Emerald, and without boring you with details, it's extremely powerful and extremely dangerous."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"I'll put it this way: That one tiny gem has got enough power to warp the laws of time and space."

The red crystal suddenly seemed to gain about 50 more pounds in Carol's pocket. "You're kidding, right?"

He shook his head. "Not even close. It's why Eggman was willing to kill you for it. He's apparently already got three of the emeralds, and getting that one will put him one step closer to his big plan, whatever that is."

"Wait, 'three?' There are more of these things?"

He nodded. "Seven in all, and they only get more powerful when you bring them together."

"So, this egg guy wants them to, you know, take over the world?"

"Of course."

"And, you're trying to stop him?"

He scoffed. "Not nearly. For all his talk, Eggman couldn't take over a playground, especially with Sonic constantly hounding him. I'm just looking for the Emeralds to find the Master Emerald."

"Uh, what's…"

He cut her off. "It's an ancient relic that I've been tasked to guard. It's disappeared, and I think that the Chaos Emeralds are the only way I can find it again. So I'm trying to find them all before Eggman or Sonic does."

"Oookay. Makes… sense."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Just hold on to it, alright? Don't tell anyone anything about it."

"Yeah, sure! Cross my heart."

"Good. And you don't have to worry about your hound friend, I've already talked to her about it."

"Oh, okay then. Good." Carol put her hands in her pockets and started to rock back and forth again. "Things have been kinda crazy, huh?"

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"W-well, I mean… more for me than you I guess… This kinda thing happens all the time for you, huh? Well, maybe it doesn't. What do I know? About you. I-I mean, I guess I…"

"Are you done?"

She sighed and mentally slapped herself for stuttering and making a fool of herself again. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

 _For crying out loud, Tea! What's wrong with you? Why are you acting like a little girl? Quick, just… change the conversation!_

"So, uh, do you like sushi?"

 _Kill me now..._

To her surprise however, Knuckles shrugged and nodded. "It's okay. I'm not usually a fan of fish though."

Before she even knew what she was doing, Carol was off. "Oh, I love it! Sushi I mean, not fish. Well, I like fish too; I'm a cat after all. But I mean, I could eat a bucket load of good sushi. There's this great restaurant out by our treehouse that's got some of the best sushi I've ever had!"

Knuckles sighed quietly as the young wildcat rambled on beside him. _This is going to be a long day,_ he thought.

Luckily, she only droned on about sushi for about another minute before her head caught up with her words and she thankfully changed the subject.

"Y-You know, it's kinda funny that you guys have got those Chaos Emerald thingies."

"How so?" He asked.

"Because we've got pretty much the same thing on Avalice."

"Really?" He asked, suddenly interested.

"Yeah, I mean sorta. It's called the Kingdom Stone, and it's this super important thing that like, powers the three kingdoms where we lived."

"Interesting." He said.

"Yeah. It's kinda the reason we're here now, since it got stolen by this big, green alien guy, and we had to go into his ship and beat the snot outta him to get it back. It was pretty awesome. Well, mostly."

"Where is it now?" He asked.

"I think it's still on his ship, 'cause we couldn't get it out before the whole thing crashed out here."

"So you still need to go get it?"

Carol shrugged as her hands slipped casually back into her pockets. "I dunno. Probably. Torque, our alien friend, is out there doing… something about radiation, I dunno. Once he gets back, I bet we're gonna go out and try to find it again."

"Torque?" Knuckles repeated. "So that's what he's doing?"

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know him?"

Knuckles shook his head. "I know about him. Sonic mentioned him when he was bringing us up to speed, and how your 'dragon' friend seems to be really worried about him."

Carol giggled. "Aw, she worries too much. He said he'd be back before nightfall, I'm sure he's fine."

* * *

"Get down!"

Torque barely had time to follow through with his own advice before a glowing, green ball of plasma detonated with a deafening blast just inches away from where he was standing a second ago. Had he not dived for cover in time, he would have been vaporized by the explosion.

In an instant, he was up and firing from his cover at the source of the blast: A Shade Trooper who, instead of the standard plasma rifles, carried a larger, high-grade fusion cannon; a huge device that could launch concentrated plasma bursts, the explosions of which were said to rival the heat of the surface a red giant star. Shrugging off the Chaser's glowing, red laser blasts that were punching into its armor, the emotionless soldier loaded and charged the cannon for another shot at its foe, ready to reduce him into subatomic particles.

However, as the Trooper prepared its devastating weapon, lifting it up and supporting it on its shoulder, it was jerked back as a series of blue plasma shots suddenly knocked it down onto its back, causing it to lose its grip on the fusion cannon. As the devastating weapon slid across the floor, the Trooper made its best attempt to dive for it. Unfortunately for it, the second it laid its hands on the launcher, one more glowing plasma blast hit it's mark: Directly onto the fusion cannon's core.

The resulting explosion was potent indeed, and Torque could feel the heat emanating from the blast even behind his cover. The moment it subsided, the Chaser peeked out of his cover to see that the only thing left of the enemy Trooper was a large scorch mark on the floor and walls, as well as thin trails of smoke.

"Nice shot, Buster." He said, a slight grin curling the edges of his lips.

The reprogrammed soldier stood at attention, lowering its smoking rifle and saluting the commander in response.

"Come on, let's go!" Without hesitation, Torque vaulted over his cover and took off, boosting down the hall past the black marks left behind by the explosion. Buster responded immediately and began following its new commander, hot on his heels as the two sprinted through the Dreadnought drawing ever closer to their destination.

Even though their journey down from the med-bay certainly wasn't uneventful, Torque was surprised at how easy it was considering the circumstances. All of the soldiers and Shade Mutants that the duo had come across had been disorganized and scattered, and some didn't even attack on sight. He had come to the conclusion that though Brevon was alive, the Dreadnought was in such shambles that he currently had no means of controlling and directing what remained of his army.

Even still, the thought of the maniacal warlord filled Torque with a sense of subtle fear, and he found himself increasing his stride slightly.

"There!" Torque said at last, as they turned a corner and caught sight of a doorway down at the end of the hallway; the very same that he had entered just a day before to find Milla's injured body. However, as he and his loyal follower burst through the doorway into the warp core, Torque was met with a very different sight.

The very first thing that Torque noticed that sent a jolt of joy through his chest was suspended in the middle of the room. Amongst smashed consoles and the general wreckage that was present throughout the rest of the crashed ship, the Kingdom Stone was suspended in the same glass cylinder, shining as brightly and flawlessly as ever.

However, as his eyes drew down from the shimmering crystal to the base of the cylinder, he was met with a sight he hadn't expected. A figure of some strange creature with large ears, and two fluffy tails was standing down below, silhouetted under the Kingdom Stone's gentle glow. Though he couldn't make out any precise details, he watched as the figure bent down over the console next to the glass cylinder, seemingly typing away.

"Hey!" Torque shouted, unclipping his blaster. "Hold it right there!"

The figure jumped in surprise and spun around at the sound of Torque's voice, watching as the Chaser and the reprogrammed soldier sprinted in his direction. As soon as he caught sight of the blasters that the two held in their hands, he quickly threw his own hands above his head defensively.

"Whoa, whoa! Hold on!"

Torque slid to a stop, raising his blaster to point it at this new creature, with Buster following suit. "What are you doing?" He demanded.

"I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

As Torque looked up and down this stranger with a firm countenance, he noted its yellow fur, large eyes, and shorter stature, and concluded that it definitely wasn't one of Brevon's mutants. He also sounded very young. _This must be that intruder that Syntax was talking about. He doesn't look that dangerous..._

"What are you doing?" Torque questioned, not lowering his blaster from the stranger's direction.

"I… I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to intrude. I was just looking at this crystal. I didn't touch anything!"

Torque raised an eyebrow, and though he didn't lower his blaster, his body relaxed a bit. "Alright then, what are you doing here?"

"I… I just wanted to explore. I mean, I couldn't really resist. The technology you've got here, it's absolutely incredible! I could only imagine what half of it is even used for, but I would love to study it! I mean, with your permission."

Torque was taken aback by the sudden change in the newcomer's countenance. Though his arms were still raised in a submissive surrender, he seemed to have been struck with a bolt of energy, and the two tails behind him began swaying around with the same excitement displayed on his face.

"It's… not my ship." Torque said at last, lowering his blaster and motioning for Buster to do the same. The mutant obeyed, but it kept a wary, unblinking stare on the newcomer, searching for any signs of hostility.

"Oh." The stranger said, lowering his hands. "Then, could I talk to your leader? Maybe I could ask him if…"

Torque suddenly laughed out loud, surprising the stranger. "I don't think that's going to work out for you, trust me. Besides, the guy in charge of this ship is _definitely_ not my leader. I'm not even really supposed to be here."

"Then, can I ask what you're doing?"

"Trying to get that back." He said, pointing up to the shining stone. "Speaking of, give me a moment."

With that, Torque slipped past the stranger to the console which held the Stone. Plugging in his hacking device, he got to work trying to open the glass case.

"So, what is 'that' exactly?" The stranger asked. He tried to edge closer to the Chaser to watch Torque's work on the screen, but a cold glare from Buster froze him in his tracks.

"It's called the Kingdom Stone." Torque explained without looking away from the monitor. "It's really important to my friends, and I need to get it to them as soon as possible."

"Oh, then can I help?"

Torque let out a quick chuckle. "You probably don't understand the…"

"No, no." The stranger interrupted. "I was studying this computer's programming just before you got here. It's actually kinda basic coding. Here, lemme show you."

He tried to step forward, but Buster's arm suddenly shot forth into his path, stopping him.

"Hey, easy Buster." Torque said, motioning to the soldier. "Alright, you can help."

"Great!" He practically bounced forward, nearly knocking Torque to the ground, and began typing away at the keyboard.

"See," he said. "you were taking the long way trying to access the system. That device you've got there," he pointed to the hacking device. "Already bypasses the primary system defenses, so you don't need to worry about that. See, what you need to do is..."

Torque listened and watched this young stranger work with a growing smile. With every word, the Chaser became more and more amazed at the level of intelligence this alien fox possessed. Torque wouldn't have hesitated to call him a genius.

"There you go!" He said at last. "Total access!"

He stepped back, giving Torque room to walk to the screen to confirm that he did indeed have complete control of the console.

"Color me impressed." He said with a grin. Immediately, he began searching through the console's databanks, looking for the procedure that would free the Kingdom Stone from its glass prison.

"What's your name?" He asked the stranger as he worked.

"Oh, I'm Miles. But you can call me Tails."

"Well I'm Torque. It's nice to meet you."

"Wait, Torque?" Tails repeated. "You're Torque the alien?"

The Chaser glanced to the side with a raised eyebrow. "Do you know me?"

"Yeah! You're Lilac's friend, right?"

"Lilac? How do you know Lilac?"

 **Indeed. Please explain how you are associated with the Chasers.**

Both Tails and Torque jumped in surprise at the sudden robotic monotone, and Buster instantly took an offensive battle stance with his rifle. All three of them spun around to see Syntax teleport in behind them with a green flash.

But the surprises didn't end there. Before any of them had time to react, the room suddenly reverberated with a chorus of steel doors clanking open, followed by a flow of metal feet marching on a metal floor.

"Get behind me!" Torque yelled to Tails, who complied as Shade Troopers began pouring in from all angles. Within moments, a squadron of over thirty enemy Troopers had the Chaser, the fox, and the rogue Trooper completely surrounded, while Syntax watched calmly from above.

"What's happening?" Tails tried to ask from behind Torque and Buster, as the latter two raised their weapons in preparation for a fight. However, Syntax began speaking before Torque could.

 **Good evening, Commander.** She droned. **I do hope this trap wasn't an inconvenience, but I'm afraid Lord Brevon requires your obliteration.**

Immediately, Buster aimed his rifle at the AI's new body, but Torque stopped him before he could fire.

"Hold it, Buster!" He yelled. "Don't shoot; there's too many."

The trooper obeyed, lowering its rifle but still retaining his battle-ready stance.

 **Thank you for your compliance.** Syntax droned. **Now if you will be so kind, please remain still for your termination.**

One by one, each of the Troopers surrounding the trio raised and aimed their weapons at their captives.

"Wait!" Torque said quickly, trying to buy time. "You, um… Brevon would want us alive so he can interrogate us. You'd be terminating an asset to him."

Syntax seemed to process Torque's words for a moment before responding. **I'm afraid your logic is flawed. Your usefulness expired when you revealed the status of the other Chasers. You have no information that would be of use.**

"You're wrong! I… I told the girls to stay away if I didn't come back! You wouldn't be able to find them without me!"

At this point, Torque was grasping at straws, hoping to give them time to come up with some plan that could get them out of their predicament. Unfortunately, Syntax was not one to be fooled so easily.

 **I'm afraid you're displaying basic characteristics of misdirection. You have no information, and you have no further use to Lord Brevon. Please remain still for your termination.**

"No! I… I…"

There was nothing he could say. As fast as he could, he tried to lift his blaster to fight back, while Buster followed suit behind him. The room filled with the hum of charging plasma rifles, and Torque knew that he likely wouldn't even get a shot out before all three of them were gunned down. Even still, with the few seconds they had left, he got himself ready to die on his feet.

Every one of the enemy Troopers fired in unison, the chorus of plasma shots echoing throughout the warp core. Torque gritted his teeth, and with a final burst of determination, pulled the trigger on his blaster.

* * *

 **Author's note:** _I feel like I owe the biggest apology to the people following this story. I shouldn't have kept you all waiting so long, and I'm deeply sorry. I really don't have any good excuse for not working on this, but I promise that I won't keep you waiting like that a second time. I don't care if it kills me, I will get this story done, and then I will continue on to what I've been planning for more than a year now._

 _Anyway, I don't have much to say about this chapter. It all pretty much turned out how I wanted, even though it's a little longer than I expected. But that's certainly not a bad thing. I would still appreciate any and all feedback any of you have to offer._

 _Anyway, thank you all so much for viewing and reviewing, I apologize one last time, and I'll see you later._

 _Yours Truly, Ultimate Supreme Executive Chairman._


End file.
